"...and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."- 1 Cor. 2:4-5

Table Charismata Matters

Sunday, November 10, 2013

The Real Faith by Charles S. Price

The Real Faith by Charles S. Price

This is a classic book on the topic of receiving faith from God
for physical healing. Personally, I suspect that what Charles S.
Price is describing is the "gift of faith" (mentioned in 1 Cor. 12:8-10) and not the ordinary "grace
of faith" which I believe can be developed for healing. But that's
for you decide. There are other versions of the book freely
available on the web along with other links related to Dr. Charles
S. Price HERE.

The Real Faith
by Charles S. Price

(1887-1847)

CHAPTER 1
IN WHICH I CONFESS

FOR YEARS I have known something was wrong. What that
something was I have now discovered, as the Holy Spirit Himself
has unfolded
before my bewildered eyes a vision of surpassing loveliness; and
for the first
time I have beheld new beauty and glories of the Lord in the
heart of that
grace we call FAITH. I call it a grace, because that is just
what it is. In our
blindness of heart and mind, we have taken faith out of the
realm of the
spiritual and, without realizing just what we were doing, have
put it in the
realm of the metaphysical. An army of emotions and desires has
driven Faith
from the chambers of the heart into the cold and unfruitful
corridors of the
mind.

Why have our prayers gone unanswered? Why are there so many
sick, in spite of the fact that for them the so-called prayer of
faith has been
offered? Why are our churches filled with the lame and the halt,
the deaf and
the blind, who sit listening to sermons on divine healing that
are true to the
Word, and true to the promises of our Lord, and yet are not healed.

More than once I have gone home from some meeting with the
shouts of victory ringing in my ears ... but I have gone home to
weep and cry,
out of a disappointed heart, unto my Lord. The crowds were
shouting because of
some who were healed; but I was weeping because of those people
who dragged
their tired, sick bodies back to their homes-- just as needy as
they were
before they came into the services.

Was there no balm in Gilead? Was
there no compassion or sympathy in the heart of the Man with the
nail prints in
His hands? Why were some healed in such a miraculous way, and
others dismissed
with an appeal to keep on believing and return later, to go
through the formula
again?

We must face facts. It is not pleasing to the Holy Spirit to
dismiss the evident discrepancy between theology and experience
with a shrug of
the shoulders, and refuse to ask for light and guidance on this
all-important
problem. Only the truth can make us free from the bondage of
fears and doubts,
and the discouragement that ultimately comes at the end of the
road of
disappointments. The only way to get the truth is to come in
sincerity and
absolute honesty of heart and mind to Jesus. Our Lord said that
He Himself was
the Truth, and as we open the door of the heart to Him we make
possible the
sweet revelations that only His presence can bring.

So I am going to be very, very frank. Sometimes,
perhaps,
almost painfully so. I cannot spread my heart out over
these
pages and do otherwise; for never before in my ministry as a
writer have I been
so stirred in my innermost being as I
am now. This
glorious and wonderful truth has flooded my soul, until it has
lifted me in
spirit to the gates of the glory world. I believe and pray that
ere you finish
these chapters, you too will see the gates of Grace swing
open, and your feet will walk down the paths of Faith to the
place where you
will meet your Saviour in the garden of answered prayer.

I come not as a dogmatist, wearing the robes of
infallibility; neither come I as a wielder of the pen of sarcasm
dipped in the
ink of criticism; but rather as a grateful child of God, to whom
the Holy
Spirit has been giving light on a subject which has been viewed
through a glass
darkly in the years that are past. But now, through the love of
‘The Giver Of Every Good And
Perfect Gift,’ there has come to me an understanding, in part at
any rate, of
the real and genuine meaning of that beautiful faith of which
Jesus not only
spoke, but imparts to men.

The revelation has answered my questions. It has solved my
problems. It has deepened my love for my Lord, and strengthened
my surrender of
heart and life to Him. It has revolutionized my healing
ministry, for it has
revealed to me the helplessness of self; and the need of the
presence, the love,
the grace, and the faith, of Jesus.

So I want to confess. I want to confess that my heart has
been heavy, even when the crowds were shouting, singing, and
declaring victory.
I could see the miracles ... cases of the healing touch of the
hand of Jesus
... that were manifestations of His supernatural power. How glad
I have been
for them. They stand today as impregnable testimonies to the
power of the Lord.
They are unassailable fortresses, in the realm of experience,
over which is
flying the glorious banner of Truth.

There are thousands and thousands of these miracles; and
they prove conclusively that Jesus is really the same yesterday,
today, and
forever. Not that we should rely upon experience to prove the
Word, but it is
blessed indeed when we can see manifestations of answered
prayer. Yet, from
those meetings, I have gone home with the faces of poor
supplicating people
haunting me. I have seen them do their
best to rise from the wheel chair, only to sink back again in
sorrow and
disappointment. I have been moved by the groans, cries, and
intercessions
around altars, until they have lingered with me for days after
the services
were over.

You have also. In your
church there is a multitude of sick and needy people. They love
the Lord ...
they are consecrated to Him ... yet there seems to be such need
for a greater
lifting of the physical burdens of life in answer to prayer.
Ministers of the
Gospel have taken me aside scores of times and told me of their
discouragements
because of their seeming inability to exercise active faith in God.
If it were not for the fact that every once in
a while some suffering soul reaches through and brings the glory
down, many of
these ministers would feel like running away when requests for
prayer are sent
to them. Not that these men are not God's men-- they are! They
are devoted to
their calling and to the Lord, but they stand bewildered before
what seems to
be a contradiction between word and experience.

It does not seem quite right to sing, "Jesus never
fails," and then watch the sick go out with their pains, their
sicknesses
and ailments, after the benediction. It is one thing to dismiss
the suppliant
with the words, "Only Believe;" but it is another thing entirely
to
dismiss that case from your thought and heart, if you are really
sincerely
honest before God. To testify to healing on the basis of faith
or promise,
before it has happened, is generally unwise, and always
inexcusable, unless the
faith is actually there. Even when it is there, it is better by
far to be able
to testify with the double
voice ...
one the articulate voice of praise and thanksgiving, and the
other the
inarticulate voice of the physical manifestation itself.

Remember that faith . . . the weight of a grain of mustard
seed ... will do more than a ton of will, or a mind full of
determination.
Genuine faith can no more manifest itself without result, than
the sun shine
without light and heat. Knowing this, and believing it to be
true, what is it
that we have been mistakenly calling faith, because real faith
never fails to
bring about the result? In my own heart, I am satisfied that
many of God's
children have failed to behold the difference between faith and
belief. To
believe in healing
is one thing; but
to have faith for
it is altogether
something else. That is why so many needy people, who believe,
come to the Lord
on the basis of His promises in the Word and try and try and try to affirm that
they are healed.

OUR DIFFICULTY

Therein has been our difficulty. We have made faith a
condition of mind, when it is a divinely imparted grace of the
heart. Brethren,
we have been wrong in our attitude and practice over and over
again. When the
golden sunlight of God's great grace and truth floods our hearts
and minds, and
when by the power of the blessed Holy Spirit we behold the
provisions of His
love; there will be an end to our struggling and striving, and
these lives of
ours will be wrapped around with the garments of His peace. In
that happy hour,
we shall come to the realization that we can receive faith only as He gives it.
No longer will we foolishly attempt to
struggle to believe. Instead of the storm, on the Galilee
of life, there will be a sweet and a beautiful calm.

The disciples could have worked themselves up into an
emotional frenzy, trying to still the anger of the tempest. But
three little
words from Jesus and the wind drops from a scream to a whisper,
and the sea
whimpers for a moment like a crying child in its mother's arms
and then settles
down to sleep on the breast of nature. Three little words from
Jesus and the
winds and the waves obey Him! The tempest would have laughed in
the face of the
disciples, though they uttered a million words of commands and
rebukes in the
will to believe, for the tempest knew it was greater than they.

Three little words from Jesus . . . one touch from His hand
divine . . . and more is
accomplished in the time of a
lightning flash than all our struggles and mental endeavors
could work in a
thousand years. We have made it difficult, when He wanted to
make it so easy.
How my heart has bled as I have seen some poor, needy soul
struggling so very
hard to exercise what he thought was faith ... when deep down in
my heart I
knew it did not come that way. Moreover, I knew faith did not
operate in
process or in results in the manner in which he had struggled so
long in his
yearning to obtain.

At moments like that it was so hard to say anything, for it
meant the overthrow of established systems and methods. It meant
the abolition
of certain manifestations which for years have been needlessly
associated with
the exercise of faith. It meant that, having arrived at the end
of the road of
honest endeavor without the thing for which we had prayed and
tried and tried
to receive, we would be forced to come to the conclusion that
there was something
wrong in our attitude of soul and mind, or else the victory
would have been
won.

Wherein have we been wrong? Why are there so many who stand
bewildered and perplexed in the midst of their own misgivings,
until perhaps
doubt has entered and the gates have quietly closed to the
trysting place with
Jesus, in the garden of the heart.

I think I know the answer! I am sure in my own heart that I
have discovered what has been wrong. I can see now where so many
missed the
way. The only thing to do is to ask the Spirit to lead us back
to the fork in
the road where, because of our blindness, we left the trail.
Then once again
can we walk on the King's Highway of grace and prove in heart
and experience
that the Book is true and that our Jesus never fails. Remember
that! If there
have been disappointments and failure, it has been on our part;
and not the
failure of Him who today is our advocate before the Father's
throne.

CHAPTER 2

TILL ALL OUR STRUGGLES CEASE

ONE OF THE chief difficulties is our failure to see that
faith can be received only as it is
imparted to the heart, by God Himself. Either you have
faith, or you do not.
You cannot manufacture it ... you cannot work it up. You
can believe a promise,
and at the same time not have the faith to appropriate it.
But we have formed
the habit of trying to appropriate by belief;
forgetting the while that belief is a mental
quality, and that when we try to believe ourselves into an
experience, we are
getting into a metaphysical realm.

But faith is spiritual ... warm and vital ... it lives and
throbs; and its power is irresistible, when it is imparted
to the heart by the
Lord. It is with the heart that man believes unto
righteousness. Heart belief
opens the door of communication between us and the Lord
and a divinely imparted
faith becomes possible.

Is it not a fact that with most of us our conception of
Faith has resulted in our struggling in an attempt to
believe? It may be that,
with all our struggling, we have come at last to the place
where we do believe;
and then we have been bewildered by the fact that we did
not receive the thing
for which we prayed. We must discern that such belief is
not necessarily what
the inspired Word calls faith. In later chapters, we shall
give you many
scriptures that prove beyond the shadow of a doubt the
truth of this alarming
statement.

According to the Word of God, all we need is faith as a
grain of mustard seed, and
the things which the world calls incredible and impossible
will be brought to
pass. How many times during the meetings we have conducted
have we seen the
scripture stories of yesteryear enacted again before our
eyes!

The seventeenth chapter of Matthew is a chapter of
contrasts. It climbs to the heights, and then goes down to
the depths. It talks
of mustard seed and mountains of despair and
transfiguration; but what a lesson
the Holy Spirit would bring to you and me on this great
subject of faith
through its priceless words. Down from the mountain top of
transfiguration came our
blessed Lord. Down from the gates of heaven itself,
where the glory breezes kissed His cheek and the angels
wrapped around His
shoulders the robes that had been woven on the looms of
light. Down from a
place of holy communion and
encouragement to the place
of human defeat and perhaps despair; for at the foot of
the Glory mountain was
a valley, and through it wound a trail of human
bewilderment.

There was sickness there. A crushed and bleeding heart was
there. A father who had met an obstacle that had crushed
him in spirit and in
heart was there. Preachers were there, too. They had gone
through the formula.
They had rebuked the devil. They had shouted and groaned
just like we have done
a hundred times, and yet the
things for which they
prayed had never happened. Even as with you and me.

THEN JESUS SPOKE

Then Jesus spoke! O glorious words of omnipotence!
Matchless
words of authority divine! With Him there was no struggle.
There was no
groaning, and no battle that was fierce and long, to bring
about the answer to
a broken father's prayer. He spoke. The devil fled. A
happy boy, cuddled in his
father's arms, sobbed his gratitude to God. A happy father
embraced his boy and
looked with tear-stained eyes of love and adoration at the
face of the Man
before whom devils fled.

Then again Jesus spoke! In answer to their question
regarding their defeat, he said: "Because of your
unbelief: for verily I
say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye shall say unto
this mountain, "Remove hence to yonder place;" and it
shall remove; and
nothing shall be impossible unto
you." What a statement! All we need is faith as a
grain of mustard
seed and mountains will tremble in fear as we approach.

Do you realize what Jesus was saying? He declared that the
least amount
of faith that He could give
was greater and mightier than the largest
amount of the power of the devil. Here was a David and
Goliath experience in
the realm of the soul. A mustard seed went to battle
against a mountain and slew
it; but it had required the faith that He alone could
impart as a gift.

Did those disciples believe? Yes they did. They believed
in
Jesus. They believed in His promises. They believed in
divine healing, or never
would they have held the healing meeting that day.
Believing just exactly like
you and I have believed in healing services and in our
church meetings, they prayed and importuned; but nothing
happened. What they
needed, according to Jesus, was faith-not a carload of it,
but just a little
faith - as a grain of mustard seed. That would be enough!
That would be all
that was necessary . . . if it was really faith.

When a woman in one of my congregations one night told me
that she had all the faith in the world for her healing, I
regretted to have to
tell her that if I had faith as a grain of mustard seed
... just that much of
my Master's faith ... what greater miracles would have
been wrought in the
mighty name of Jesus that night!

Let us face the issue squarely. Let us with open,
surrendered hearts ask the Holy Spirit to send forth the
Light and Truth to
lead us to that Holy Hill. Is it not evident that when we
have prayed what we
thought was the prayer of faith and nothing happened, it
must be that what we
thought was faith was not faith at all? Did Jesus say that
faith, as a grain of
mustard seed, would work some times and not at others? Did
He declare that it
would be operative on occasions and inoperative at other
times? Read the text.
His declaration was clear, concise, and plain. There was
nothing ambiguous
about it. It was a plain statement of fact from the lips
and heart of the
eternal God Himself; and who can speak with greater
authority than He?

Whenever and wherever this faith is in operation, we shall no longer
be standing around poor,
sick folk hour after hour, rebuking, commanding,
demanding, struggling, and
pleading as in the days of yore. There may be a place for
intercession, but it
is not in the exercise of faith. Intercession and groaning
of the heart may
precede the operation of faith; but when God's faith is
imparted, the storm
dies down and there is great calm and a deep settled peace
in the soul. The
only sound will be the voice of thanksgiving and praise.
The full
realization-that it was not our ability to believe that
made the sickness go,
but rather that the faith which is of God was
imparted-will steal over our
soul, like a morning daybreak, to bid the night shadows
flee away.

Then it is morning-glorious morning in our soul. We can
believe in the morning . . . we can love in the morning .
. . we can have
confidence in the morning . . . but only God
can send the morning. He alone can make it. We can believe
in healing . . . we
can believe in our blessed Redeemer and His power to heal
. . . but only He,
the Lord Jesus Christ, can work the work which will lift
us to the mountain
peaks of victory.

THE TRUE WAY

The mistake with many people has been that they have
confused their own ability to believe for the faith which
is of God. To sit
down and repeat over and over "I am healed-I am healed-I
am healed"
is not only unscriptural, but extremely dangerous
spiritually. I admit that
such a spiritually unsound procedure might help a few
neurotics, but it would
never remove the mountains of which the Master spoke. How
well do I remember the
crippled man in a wheel chair, whose case would best
illustrate scores of
others whom we have contacted from time to time.
Around him were grouped a dozen people who were doing
everything in their power
to get him out of that chair. There were prayers and tears
mixed with commands
and rebukes; and every sincere effort was being put
forward to get him to walk.

When I talked with him quietly, he told me with such deep
sincerity that he had been trying so hard to believe. He
informed me that he
had had lots of faith but now was bewildered and perplexed
as to what to do. I
soon discovered that he had been entirely wrong as to what
faith really is. He
had thought that he would be healed if only he could believe that
he was healed. That was what he was struggling
and trying to do.

He believed the promises of the Word. He believed in the
power of Jesus to accomplish the miracle. He believed so
many, many
things-wonderful and glorious to believe in these days of
doubt and fear-but he
was trying to do the impossible. He was staking the
working of the miracle on
his ability to believe mentally that it was done.

I told him the story of a visit I once made to the house
where Jesus turned the water into wine. I told him of how
the Holy Spirit spoke
to this unworthy heart of mine as I stood before those
pots. I asked him if he
believed the Bible story of the miracle which the Master
did in Cana of Galilee. He
told me that he did. As my thoughts
turned back to that afternoon in Cana,
I felt the warm glow of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

This is the lesson I received that day. Though the mother
of
Jesus, as well as the disciples, was there, would that
water have turned into
wine if they had merely believed that it was wine? It
required the command
which left the lips divine! It required the touch of the
hand of God Himself.
They could fill the pots with water; they could fill them
to the brim. They
could carry them to the appointed place. They could do the
things He told them
to do; for He
never asks men to do the
impossible. That power He reserves for Himself.

All things are possible with
God. But Mark (9:23) tell us,
"If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that
believeth." The belief that Jesus is speaking of here is not head belief or
mental acquiescence,
but that heart belief which is faith.
This is proved by the account which Matthew gives of the
story of the lunatic
boy, to which we have already referred. In the account by
Matthew, Jesus said,
"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed;" while in
the narrative
recorded by Mark, "If ye believe." So the "belief" of Mark
and the "faith" of Matthew are identical. That is my
point. That is
what the Spirit of God has been causing my poor eyes to
behold. That faith is
not intellectual, but spiritual. It is primarily of
heart-- not of mind.
Genuine, scriptural faith is not our
ability to "count it done," but is the deep
consciousness
divinely imparted to the heart of man that it
is done. It is the faith that only God can give.

So I told my story to the old man in the wheel chair. Did
you ever see a flower open to the smile and kiss of the
morning sun? I saw one
that day, as I looked into the face of the dear old man.
Home he went to
patiently wait until some angel voice would whisper in his
soul the news that
Jesus of Nazareth was passing by on the Jericho Road
of his life.

A few nights later he was back in his wheel chair. I met
him. "I am going to walk tonight," he declared. His eyes
were alight
with something I knew was faith. "How do you know it?" I
asked him.
"It is so quiet and peaceful in my soul; I am so happy in
the
consciousness of His presence, that all I need now is to
obey His word and be
anointed in His blessed name." There was no struggle; not
even
intercession, for that had gone before.

There is no need of the darkness, when the sun has come up
over the hill; no need for the struggle between darkness
and light,
that we call the morning twilight, after the rays
of sunshine have
kissed the earth! Out of his wheel chair he got and walked
the length of the
altar; then down on his knees in adoration, praise and
worship, to pour out his
grateful heart in thanksgiving for the heart belief, or faith,
that comes only from God.

THE MASTER'S VISIT

The postman has just been to my door. He left a letter
that
I want you to share with me. It is the story of a woman
who was crippled beyond
any I have ever seen in the many years I have presented my
Lord as the Saviour
of the soul and the Healer of the body. When first I saw
her, she begged
piteously for prayer. She asked me to heal her. I could
not . . . and I knew
it. I might have gone through a series of commands,
rebukes and pleadings ...
but I did not. I was just a disciple at the foot of the
mountain; and I knew
that we both needed our Lord to come down.

I believed in Jesus, and His power to raise the fallen. I
believed His promise, and I stood on His word. But as I
looked into the face of
a woman who had crawled on her hands for ten years, and
who was helpless from
the waist down, my heart told me that I needed more than
just to believe she
was healed. I needed the impartation of that faith which
supersedes reason; I
needed that spiritual quality of heart belief which no
mental affirmations of
mind could ever bring about. I knew that was what she
needed too.

So I pleaded with her to contact Jesus. I begged her to
wait
patiently for the Lord. Her hour would come . . I felt
it in my heart. I knew that Jesus never fails. But, oh how
many times, we
prevent His working by our foolish endeavors to do what He
alone has power to
accomplish. So day after day her husband and friends
carried her to the
meetings. Day after day she sought the face of the Lord.
Night after night they
picked up her helpless body and placed it before the old
wooden bench where
prayer was wont to be made.

The days passed. In spirit she climbed the temple steps
into
the tabernacle of the Lord. She passed by the altars of
surrender and
sacrifice, and one night she entered into the Holy of
Holies. What a night! It
was Sunday. Healing was not on the program which had been
printed by human
hands. But God works wonders when Jesus of Nazareth passes
by; and the Holy
Spirit can make us rise above our forms, rituals and
plans.

A beautiful spirit pervaded that Sunday evening service.
Down at the altar, where she had been carried by her
husband, she reclined to
pray, for she could not kneel. Then Jesus came. He gave
her a vision of
Himself. She saw Him at the end of a road. He smiled. She
was conscious of
faith flowing like a river across the fields of her heart.
Before it happened,
she knew it! How, or why, she could not tell; but she knew
that there had been
a divine infusion of the Faith that is the Faith of the
Son of God.

At that very moment, the Saviour imparted His Faith to my
heart too. I turned to the Methodist minister on the
platform and said,
"Tonight we shall see the glory of the Lord." We did. As
the hand of
the Lord was laid upon her, she straightened out. Her
shriveled limbs grew
to normal size faster than it takes
to tell it. She stood to her feet! She walked! No need to
be carried now,
except in the loving arms of Jesus.

Down to the foot of the cross streamed sinners to seek a
Saviour! The building rang with the praises that come from
happy hearts, and
the rafters resounded with the message:

"Only Jesus, only
Jesus,

Only He can
satisfy.

Every burden
becomes a blessing,

When I know my Lord is nigh."

ONLY JESUS

The reason for telling this story is that I want you to
see
the difference between human effort to believe, and the
faith that is the gift
of God. How much better, and more scriptural, it is to
wait until Jesus of
Nazareth passes by and speaks the word of faith to the
needy heart, than to
mistake our belief
in healing for the
faith which He
alone can give.

Frankly, the day they first brought that poor, helpless
woman for prayer, I was aware of three things. I knew she
did not have faith;
I knew I did not have the faith; and I knew that only Jesus
had. So quite evidently our mission was to draw close to
Jesus. It is our
privilege to take our troubles and our cares to Him in
prayer; and within our
heritage is the right to draw apart from the world into
the sacred place of
communion, where heaven comes down . . . our souls to
greet . . . and glory
crowns the Mercy-Seat.

That is what we did! We could have set our minds and our
wills to work right then and there. We could have
commanded, exhorted and
entreated . . . and she could have struggled to rise, as
others have done, in
the power of will instead of in faith. But
no ... there is a better
and sweeter way. It is God's way! It is the Bible way. It
was a long way for
the nobleman to walk from Capernaum
to Cana; but after he met
Jesus, he never regretted the journey.

It may be that the trail will be steep over consecration
mountain and through the valley of the+ yielded heart; but
hope will give
strength to our feet and, as we walk with Jesus in the
way, the toils of the
road will seem nothing; for He and He alone is the giver
and imparter of that
faith which is able to remove mountains.

I should like to share with you our sister's letter:

Laurel, Ontario

October 12, 1940

Dear Brother Price:

Christian greetings! Oh, hallelujah, the joy bells are
ringing in my heart because of Jesus!

As the time draws near to another anniversary of the great
miracle performed upon my body, the thoughts and the
warmth of my husband's
heart and mine, go out to you in a very special way. Thank
God, the blessed
Christ came to us and manifested His power and presence so
preciously to us,
that evening, October 19, 1924.

What good measure He gave us! He saved my soul as well as
healed my body, using you as His disciple. Truly I was in
a pitiful condition,
was I not, Brother Price? I was in great need both
spiritually and physically.
Spiritually, I thought I was saved, but was really sort of
on the fence, having
too much of the Lord to enjoy the world, and too much of
the world to have real
joy in the Lord.

Through your preaching the full gospel, the real joy of
the
Lord came into my heart, also my husband's to abide-with
the assurance that our
many sins were washed away in Jesus' cleansing blood.
Physically well, you
pretty well know my condition in that respect, as you
could see for yourself my
helplessness when I was taken into your meetings, not
being able to walk or
stand, or even let my feet rest on the floor in the usual
way when sitting in
my chair. Ten long years of helplessness, being carried in
the arms of my
faithful husband, with continual suffering; and then,
Jesus again walked the Jericho Road, and came my way in
your meetings. Oh yes,
you have heard me tell of it many times, but I want to
tell it to you yet
again. The story never becomes stale to my husband or me,
because you see it is Jesus. Dear Jesus!

My heart overflows as I talk to you of it, and the tears
are
and too, for Jesus' love melts me down in praise and
thankfulness before Him.
Yes, Jesus heals sick bodies today! Keep on telling the
good news, Brother
Price, for there are so many sick and afflicted ones all
about us. God's word
tells us that Jesus healed the lame, the blind, the
lepers, and all manner of
diseases, when He walked this earth many years ago, and we
do know that He does
the very same in the days in which we live. His power has
not lessened. Those
bleeding healing stripes He bore at Calvary are just as
efficacious now as then, Thank God.

Saturday, October 19, 1924, Jesus put me upon my helpless
feet and enabled me to walk
without an ache or a pain; and sent me on my way
rejoicing, and truly my
husband and I have been rejoicing ever since-in Jesus!
Sixteen years of health,
strength and activity. I have had some real tests in my
body during those
years, broken bones and different trials of faith, but I
want to tell you once
again, even though you so well know it, the promises of
God hold fast and sure.
Our God gets all the glory, for neither my husband nor I
have ever used the
slightest remedy of any kind since Jesus so undertook for
us at Paris,
where we found the great Healer in those gospel meetings.

In thankfulness and praise to Jesus, we again wish to
thank
you, Brother Price, for the part you had in the great
work. Like Paul, you were
not disobedient to the heavenly vision, for you did not
compromise in any way,
but declared the whole truth, not leaving out that Jesus
heals the sick today.

My husband and I are so well in body, all glory and praise
to Jesus our physician. Never any need for pills or
liniment now; the promises
are sufficient. Hallelujah! Jesus
never, never fails.

'We continue to pray for you. May you ever be guided by
the
Holy Spirit, and anointed from above for even greater
service than in past
years, to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ.

How the Holy Spirit warms me as I write, and the power of
God thrills and fills me. Hallelujah! Jesus lives! How do
we know? Thank God,
because He lives within.

Cordial Christian love to you all, from your ever thankful
friends in Jesus,

Brother and Sister Johnson

CHAPTER 3

THE BETTER ROAD

BELIEVE there is a difference between the faith of the
Old
Testament under law and the faith of the New Testament
under grace. The key
word of Paul's epistle to the Hebrews is "better," and
this is
particularly interesting in the light of the fifth
chapter of this remarkable
letter. He is trying to get them to see the truth of
Christianity by contrast.
He does not abrogate the past, but shows them that
Christianity grew out of
Judaism just as the flower grows out of the root.

Hidden away in the ritual of the root was
the color, the fragrance, and the beauty of the flower
of grace that was to
come later. Was not the flower better than the root? Was
not the end better
than the beginning? Was not the blood of Christ better
than the blood of the lamb
on Jewish altars slain? Was not Jesus better than the
angels who had visited
their fathers from time to time in memorable days of
their national history?
Was not the voice of God's Son better than the voice of
the prophets?

This then was the heart throb of the Epistle. When he
comes
to the faith chapter, is there any reason for his
departure from the purpose of
the letter, and the motive of the epistle? I think not.
The theme is still
better, and the purpose is to show the beauty of the
faith of Jesus in
comparison to those works and words of the patriarchs
and prophets which were
counted unto them as faith. It was the faith of that
day. It was the faith for
that time. Remember that Paul closes that faith chapter
with the words,
"God having provided some better thing for us, that they
without us should
not be made perfect."

In other words, the acts and testimonies of the ancients
were held up like pictures in a gallery for the
Christian Jews to behold and
admire. There was the story of Abel and Enoch. Noah,
Abraham, Sara, Isaac and
Jacob were framed in a picture of obedience to the
divine word. Then there came
Moses and Joshua, followed by a grand parade of the
illustrious of the days of
old, before Jesus was born in the stable of Bethlehem.
But Jesus was born now- and nowhere in the entire
epistle does Paul tell them,
or us, that our faith today should be limited in its
pattern, working, or
operation to the faith of our fathers. Instead, he tells
of something better.
He introduces the flower which has grown out of the
root.

Faith in the old days was manifested by word and deed in
obedience to command. But there remains more. The word
and deed are only a
part, and a small one at that, of what the New Testament
teaches us that faith
really is. Of course, there will be work, and there will
be testimony. But that
alone is not faith. Not New Testament faith, at any
rate!

In this connection, it is interesting to note that if
you
turn back to the Old Testament account of the lives of
the men and women
introduced in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, the word
faith is never
mentioned in connection with their lives at all. The
word faith occurs in the
Old Testament only twice, and in one of those instances
it is prophetic and in
the other is used in a negative way regarding the
unbelief of a wicked
generation. The two passages are Deuteronomy 32:20 and
Habakkuk 2:4.

So we must come then to the unmistakable conclusion that
Paul is not holding up the lives of these illustrious
Patriarchs as a pattern
for them to follow, but rather as the excellent
beginning in God's will of something
more wonderful which they were to discover in Jesus. The
faith they were to
possess was all their fathers had and more. Seeing that
they were surrounded by
such a great cloud of witnesses, they too were to lay
aside weights and sins
and run with patience the new race which was set before
them. They were to do
what? Look to Jesus who was the Author and Finisher of
their faith.

If He was the Author and the Finisher of their faith,
and
the faith of Paul, then He is the Author and Finisher of
my faith too. In other
words, all true faith begins and ends in Him. It does
not say that He is the
Author and the Finisher of His faith alone, but it
states that He is the Author
and Finisher of my faith and of yours.

FAITH AND PRESUMPTION

There is nothing before the Alpha and nothing after the
Omega. He begins it, and it begins in Him. He ends it
and it ends in Him. When
I want it, I must seek His face! I can not get it
anywhere else, but from that
matchless One of whom it is said, He is the Author and
the Finisher of our
faith. Not of His alone but of yours and mine.

Have we made the mistake, after looking at the eleventh
chapter of Hebrews and seeing what they did then, of
rolling up our sleeves to
show and prove our faith by what we do? Have you ever
done that? If you have,
then you have stood in bewilderment at what seemed to be
unanswered prayer and
the inoperative power of what you thought was faith!
Remember that faith acts,
but the act comes from the faith, rather than faith from
the act. That is why
it is very easy to step over the border line from the
Faith God imparts into
the realm of presumption. This was illustrated to me in
a very clear and
wonderful way some time ago.

In Victoria, B. C., some years ago, I was entering the
Metropolitan Methodist Church
in company with a few ministers. At the door of the
edifice we saw a kindly old
lady being taken out of a truck in a wheel chair. I
raised my hat and gave her
a "God bless you." Tears welled up in her eyes as she
replied,
"He has been blessing me, Dr. Price. He is so kind and
gracious, and I can
feel His presence now."

"Have you come for healing?" I inquired.

"Yes, I have," she replied, "and praise His Name, I know the waters are
troubled." Just then the
truck driver leaned over and said, "Shall I come back,
lady, to take you
home after the service?"

She had traveled a good many miles, and the only way to
get
her home in a wheel chair was by truck, for the chair
was too large for an
automobile. She hesitated. Then a light came over her
face as she replied,
"No, I am not going to need a truck. I will leave my
wheel chair behind
and go home on the train." The driver scratched his
bewildered head and
grinned at what he thought was a foolish woman. Away he
drove. And she did not
need him! She went to her house rejoicing, and she went
on the train!

I told that story in a meeting I conducted in the middle west. The next day a lady
sent a message that she
would like to see me for a moment in her cottage. I
found her lying on a couch
with a group of people around her who were singing a
hymn. She looked up at me
and said, "Brother Price, I have sent the wheel chair
home." She
waited for a shout from me. None came. Instead my heart
fell. There was no
faith and I knew it. She discerned I did not enthuse
over her act, so she
turned away from me and said, "If God can do it for one
woman, He can do
it for another."

When I left the building that night she was again the
center
of a group who were insisting that she arise and walk;
but she went away
sorrowful. Of her the Lord could say, "There is one
thing thou
lackest." The two acts were just the same. Two wheel
chairs were sent
home. In one case it was faith; and in the other it was
presumption. In New
Testament faith the act can be born of faith; but faith
can not be born of the
act. The act can come from faith, but the faith must
come from God.

This, then, is the better way of Paul's epistle to the
Hebrews. This is the purpose and the motive back of what
we call the Faith
Chapter of the Book. Have you not stood in amazement
before the unfolding
benevolence and generosity of the Lord? Do you not know
that no good thing will
He withhold from them that walk uprightly? Have you a
need? Take it to Jesus.
Have you a problem? Lay it at the Master's feet. Begin
to trust Him, and as you
give Him your confidence and trust, you will find His
Faith will become
operative in you. Why play with the teacup of our
struggles and endeavors when
His faith is as boundless as the ocean?

He is no respecter of persons. He loves the weakest and
the
simplest of us all, but we become so important in our
own eyes and so proud of
our spiritual accomplishments that our testimonies
display only the
righteousness which is vainly of self. He looks at it-
the righteousness which
is filthy rags! We need to come in the guileless spirit
of little children:
come with the bells of love pealing in the belfry of our
hearts! It is useless
to wait until we feel we are worthy, for that we will
never be. Come as a little
child to the One who in the days of old set a little one
in the midst of them
and said to the Pharisees, "Except . . . ye become as
little children, ye
shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."

Steal away softly to Jesus. In this day of grace, the
faith
for the Christian can be found only in Christ; but in
our blessed Lord you will
find sufficient for all your need. What Noah had was
good, but what we have is
better. Noah had God's Word, but we have God's Son. Noah
built on God's Word,
but our foundation is Jesus Himself. So we find it in
the whole of that
remarkable chapter: a recitation of God's glory manifest
in the acts of men who
believed God and who walked the walk of obedience with
Him. One of them, named
Enoch, went for a walk with Him one day and forgot to
come back. When the faith
which is of God came to earth in the form of the Son of
God, Paul was
constrained to say to the Hebrews, "That was the old
faith, but here is
the new. That was the good way, but this is the better."

A STORY OF MULLER

Christ was to be all in all. And the love of the
Father's
heart is shown in the fact that He is not only able, but
willing to
meet our every need. I have been reading the life of
George Muller. Pastor Charles Parsons tells of an
experience with Muller in the
following words:

"A warm summer
day found me slowly walking up the shady groves of
Ashley Hill, Bristol. At the top there met my gaze the immense
buildings which shelter over two thousand orphans,
built by a -man who has
given the world the most striking object lesson in
faith it has ever seen.

"The first
house
is on the right, and here, among his own people, in
plain, unpretentious apartments, lives a saintly
patriarch, George Muller.
Passing through the lodge gate, I paused a moment to
look at House No. 3 before
me, only one of the five erected at a cost of
$600,000.

"The bell is
answered by an orphan, who conducts me up a lofty
stone staircase, and into one
of the private rooms of the venerable founder. Mr.
Muller has attained the
remarkable age of ninety-two. As I stand in his
presence, veneration fills my
mind. "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and
honor the face of the
old man." (Leviticus 19:32).

"He received
me
with a cordial handshake, and bade me welcome. It is
something to see a man by whom
God has accomplished a mighty work; it is more to
hear the tones of his voice;
far more than either to be brought into immediate
contact with his spirit, and
feel the warm breath of his soul breathed into one's
own. The communion of that
hour will be forever graven on my memory.

"I have read
your
life, Mr. Muller, and noticed how greatly, at times,
your faith has been tried.
Is it with you now as formerly?" Most of the time he
leaned forward, his
gaze directed on the floor. But now he sat erect and
looked for several moments
in my face, with an earnestness that seemed to
penetrate my very soul. There
was a grandeur and majesty about those undimmed
eyes, so accustomed to
spiritual visions and to looking into the deep
things of God. I do not know
whether the question seemed a sordid one, or whether
it touched a lingering
remnant of the old self to which he alludes in his
discourses. Anyhow, there
was no shadow of doubt that it roused his whole
being. After a brief pause,
during which his face was a sermon, and the depths
of his clear eyes flashed
fire, he unbuttoned his coat, and drew from his
pocket an old-fashioned purse,
with rings in the middle, separating the character
of the coins. He placed it
in my hands, saying: "All I am possessed of is in
that purse-every penny!
Save for myself? Never! When money is sent to me for
my own use, I pass it on
to God. As much as £1,000 has thus been sent
at one time; but I do not regard
these gifts as belonging to me; they belong to Him,
whose I am, and whom I
serve. Save for myself? I dare not; it would
dishonor my loving, gracious, all
bountiful Father.

"The great
point
is never to give up until the answer comes. I have
been praying for fifty-two
years, every day, for two men, sons of a friend of
my youth. They are not
converted yet, but will be! How can it be otherwise?
There is the unchanging
promise of Jehovah, and on that I rest. The great
fault of the children of God
is, they do not continue in prayer; they do not
persevere. If they desire
anything for God's glory, they should pray until
they get it. Oh, how good,
kind, gracious and condescending is the One with
whom we have to do! He has
given me, unworthy as I am,
immeasurably above all I
had asked or thought! I am only a poor frail, sinful
man; but He has heard my
prayers tens of thousands of times, and used me as
the means of bringing tens of
thousands into the way of Truth. I say tens of
thousands in this and other
lands. These unworthy lips have proclaimed salvation
to great multitudes, and
very many have believed unto eternal life."

Thus spake George Muller.
Thus
spake a man of our times, for I was in Bristol
as a boy while Muller was yet alive. Thus spake a man
who had learned the
lesson that waters come from the fountain and that
flowers come from the root. He
had learned that the faith of God comes only from God
and that nowhere else
could it be found. He learned that He who was so free in
the grace of giving
would teach His disciples how to be efficient in the
grace of receiving. When
he needed money, he went not to the man who had it, but
to the Christ who had
the power to speak to the heart of the man who had it.
His faith came because
of his daily, vital contact with his Lord; and being in
the will of God, he was
given more than enough for every need.

Men used to call him "the nineteenth century apostle of
faith." I suppose he must have heard that said about himself.
I wonder if he ever read the eleventh chapter of
Hebrews. I wonder if he ever
became conscious of the fact that men were adding his
name to the roll of the
heroes of faith. If he did, I think he must have smiled
when he came to the
last verse of that eleventh chapter of Hebrews and read,
"God having
provided something better for us." And he must have
found what that better
was when only two short scripture verses away he found
the words, "Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."

So go to Jesus now. Learn to trust Him, that He might
impart
His faith! Acquaint Him with your need. Tell Him of your
sorrows. Then, in the
sanctuary of His presence, you will find rest and
freedom from the noise and
worries which beset you from without and within.

And His that
gentle voice we hear,

Soft as the
breath of even,

That checks each
thought, that calms each fear,

And speaks to us of Heaven.

CHAPTER 4

THE ORIGINS OF FAITH

I HAVE a very decided dislike for negative preaching and
writing. It is not sufficient for a speaker or author to
discuss the disease,
but to satisfy my soul and mind, he must give me the cure.
It is easy to point
out what is wrong, but I want to know what is right.
Sometimes that is a little
more difficult than one would suppose. However, when at
last honest mistakes
have been rectified, and we are back on the paths of
truth, it may be that in
the providence of God the wrong trail will have left us a
heritage of blessing.

Many years ago I was on one of my periodic visits to the
mountain ranges which border on the rocky coasts of
Alaska.
A visitor to this land of the Great White Silence had been
lost, and I had told
him of the trail which would take him back to a valley
where he could get his
bearings. After a lapse of two hours he was back at my
camp. He told me he was
confused and completely turned around; and asked me if I
would kindly travel
with him until he was sure of his direction. I did, for it
is a dangerous place
in which to wander alone, unless one has a knowledge
of the country and its trails. Weeks later I received a
letter from the
grateful fellow, in which he said among other things, "To
know you are on
the right road is a fine thing; but to return to it, after
being on the wrong
one, multiplies its blessing."

How true! It is after the rain that we appreciate the
bursting buds and delicate greens of the early spring.
After the storm clouds
we appreciate the calm of a sky-blue day. If through these
pages I can lead
those dear children of God, who have not seen the full
fruit of the victory of
faith, back to the clear teaching of the Book and to
ultimate victory, then
this heart of mine will be happy and these pages, written
in prayer, will not
fail in their mission.

The thing above all else I want you to see is that you can
not generate it; you can not work it up; you can not
manufacture it. It is
imparted and infused by God Himself. You can not sit in
your homes and struggle
to have faith, and affirm that something is; nor can you
turn your hope and
desire into faith by your own power. The only place you
can get it is from the
Lord, for the Word clearly and distinctly states that
faith is one of two
things. It is either a gift of God, or it is a fruit of
the Spirit.

We are told in Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, "Now
abideth faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these
is love." While
love might be the greatest, it certainly is not the first.
It must be preceded
by faith. Look out of your window at yonder tree. What a
thing of symmetry and
loveliness it is! Only God can make a tree. There is
beauty in its twisted
branches. There is loveliness in its trembling leaves.
Every leaf is a little
world unto itself, with its tiny veins carrying the life
that God supplies,
which gives it all it possesses in its native realm. Yet
there is something
back of the tree. Beneath the surface of the ground there
is a great system of
roots hidden away. You never behold them; yet without them
the tree would die.
It would have no life at all.

FAITH IS THE LIFE

The roots are ugly and hard in comparison to the beautiful
greenery above the ground. Yet the greenery is there
partly because of those
roots. Now, let us call the top of the tree "Love." You
can see it.
You can contact it. You can enjoy its fragrance. You
behold its beauty. It is
there because of something which is back of it- something
hidden away that
causes it. That something is the roots. Now you expect me
to say that those
roots are the roots of faith. No! Faith
is the life that flows into the roots. It is that
mystical quality that
only God can produce and give. There are roots you could
plant which will
never, never grow.

You, yourself, and your inner
nature are those roots. Your senses, your avenues of
approach to the
expressions of life itself are buried below the surface
where people cannot see
them. All the world beholds is what you produce and not
you yourself. What did
Jesus mean when He said, "By their fruit ye shall know
them?" Ye
shall know them.
The fruit produced
is an index to what the tree really is.

Let me repeat. The roots of the tree are not faith. The
roots do not produce the life, but the life produces the
roots. It is the
life that is faith. It is that
wonderful and glorious quality which is a gift of the
divine heart, and which
sustains us. This life, or faith, will be manifest to the
world by the fruit we
bear; by the arms of love outstretched; by the things of
grace and beauty which
through God are manifested day by day on the tree of our
lives.

How foolish it would be for that tree to struggle in an
attempt to create the life which flows into it. It need
not struggle. All it
needs to do is to function in obedience to the laws
divine. As the life is
there, it simply manifests that life in the fruit it
bears, and the beauty with
which it endows the world.

So it is with faith. Love may be the greatest thing in the
world, but faith must of necessity be the first. Without
faith it is impossible
to please God. But you tell me that you
have faith. I ask you where you got it. I pick a rosy
apple from a tree. I hear
it testify from the core of its little apple heart. It
tells me it has rosy cheeks.
It whispers in my ear that it is so very good to the
taste. It invites me to taste
its flavor. It testifies that it has so many noble and
beautiful qualities.
Then I ask it where it got them all.

From the branch?The
shelter of the leaves, the rain and the sun? Yes,
all true; but I knew
that way down in the hidden system, which you can not see,
the roots were
receiving something from God that no tree on the face of
the earth has ever
been able to produce of itself!

THE ATHEIST AND GOD

Some time ago an atheist sat in a meeting I was
conducting.
He was extremely hard and cynical. He lived alone in the
room of a hotel, and
his solitude had only added to his hard, critical,
unbelieving nature. I
preached that night on the subject "Comprehending the
Incomprehensible." I declared that it was possible to
believe the
unbelievable; to know the love of God that passeth
knowledge. The following
morning he came to my room and asked for an interview. He
was rather
argumentative and I told him, while I did not have time
for argument, I would
be glad to answer any sincere, honest question which he
might put before me.

He said, "I have no faith whatever. I do not believe
the Bible, and I do not know if there be
a God. I do
see a law of order in nature and the universe, but what
causes it, or where it
came from, I do not know. Now, Dr. Price, your sermon last
night was a
challenge to my thinking. What I want to know is this: How
can a man spend a
dollar when he does not have one? How can you drive a car
when you do not
possess one? How can you believe when you have no belief?
How can God expect a
man to exercise faith when he does not have any (assuming
there is a God)?
Where is there any justice in a set-up like that?"

"Are you an honest man, and do you want to know the
truth?"

"What is truth?" was the reply. "What brand
of it do you mean? I have never been able to find it,
although I have spent a
lifetime in search of it."

On the wall of my apartment was hanging a picture of Jesus
in the Garden of Gethsemane.
His hands were clasped and His eyes were raised toward
heaven in prayer. I
walked over to that picture and looked at it for a moment
or two without
speaking. I intuitively knew he would be looking at that
picture too. When at
last I turned to face him, I said, "He is Truth. He is the
Way. He is your
Life and Faith. He has in abundance what you say you do
not have. You have been
trying to get it out of mind, thought, and intellect. He
can put it there, as
the river of His grace flows through your heart. That is
why He came. He came
to make men free ... free from doubts like yours . . .
free from fears and
misgivings . . . free from unbelief and free from sin . .
.
"

"Sounds like a fairy story to me," he interrupted.
"Fine if you can believe it, but how
can man or God
expect a man to believe what he can not believe?"

He went away. A week later he came to me and offered his
hand. When I looked at his face, I knew the miracle had
happened. Into his
heart there had come not only the conscious knowledge of
sins forgiven, but a
manifestation of the sweetness and love of God which had
made him a new creation
in Christ Jesus. As in the Millennium, instead of the
briar shall come up the
myrtle tree, so in this man's life there had sprung up the
evidence of the
Indwelling Presence of God.

"Do you know what happened?" he said. "I told
the Lord to manifest Himself, if He was there. I asked Him
to do something
which would reveal His presence, if He was there at all. I
became conscious
that He was near me. I realized there was a God- that
there was a soul to save.
I did not understand it with my mind, but I knew it in my
heart. Then I told
Him I had no faith to believe, so He gave me His faith,
and I believed. The
work was done."

Why not? That is God's way of salvation. "As many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of
God, even to them
that believe on His name." When I give an altar call, I
invite every man,
and every woman, to surrender his heart and life to
Christ. If we are saved by
Faith, how do I know that all can have the faith to
receive? How do I know that
every one whom I invite can find eternal life? Some might
have faith, and
others be entirely devoid of
it. The fact that people
believe what you say does not mean that they have the
faith to translate that
belief, or even heart hunger, into an experimental
knowledge of sins forgiven.

Nevertheless, I cry "Whosoever will may come,"
because I know that He will impart the faith which is
needful to every sincere
heart. I have quoted the twelfth verse of the first
chapter of John: "But
as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become
the Sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name." Let me quote the next
one. Thus does it
read: "Who were born (that is, born again) not of blood,
nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

The same Holy Ghost who convicts the sinner of his sin
will
see to it that as the sinner was given enough conviction
to convince him of his
sin, so he will now be given faith enough to convince him
of his salvation. But
no man in himself possesses that faith. Are we not told
"By grace are ye
saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is
the gift of God."
Poor, wretched, miserable, ignorant, unbelieving humanity
could never grow or
develop in such corrupt hearts of unbelief faith enough to
believe in a
Saviour, let alone receive Him. So the Holy Spirit not
only imparts the
conviction of the need of a Saviour, but also imparts the
faith to receive Him.

Never think it was your faith that received Christ as your
Saviour. Never say that any act of yours was the basis of
your redemption. It
is Jesus who imparts the water of which He spoke to the
woman by Samaria's
wayside well. It is Jesus who puts His arms of love
beneath the burden on your
back and lifts it from your tired, weary body. It is Jesus
who pours into the
lacerated, broken heart the oil of heaven's joy. It is
Jesus who smooths the
wrinkles of care with the gentle touch of a
mother's hand, and it is Jesus who brings you out of the
darkness of the night
into the light of His own glorious and wonderful day.

"Oh, it is
Jesus; yes, it is Jesus;

Yes, it is Jesus in
my soul;

For I have touched
the hem of His garment,

And His blood has
made me whole!"

Sing it and shout it. Proclaim it and herald it near and
far. His blood-- His grace-- His power-- His pardon-- His
faith!

A LIVING FAITH

When will we stop our foolish and needless struggles and
begin to believe? When will we put an end to our
unscriptural mental and
intellectual gyrations in our attempt to find a faith we
do not possess; for
unless we get it from God, never will we possess that
Faith! We are capable of
belief and at the same time absolutely incapable of the
exercise of Bible
faith. Thousands have wandered into the error of thinking
that belief is faith.
It is not.
There is belief in faith,
without a doubt; but "the devils
also believe." Belief is cold- intellectual. It
operates as far as the
human goes in the realms of intellect. Many sinful men believe the Bible,
but such
belief does not save them.

Faith is living. It moves and operates, and sweeps the
enemies of the soul before its irresistible march. All the
faith in the world? No! You need only as much as
a grain of mustard
seed, if it is God's faith! Then mountains will be
removed. Your sin-sick soul
will behold the glory of the Lord. But it must be God's
faith. It must come from
Him. He must impart it. And He will.
That is the Gospel of Grace which I believe.

The Jericho Road
without Jesus
is the Jericho Road. With
Him it is the shining highway of salvation and
healing. Its very rocks cry
out His glory. Without
Him its dust
is sordid, its tears are real, and its blindness is so
dark; but with
Him its dust begins to grow the
flowers of grace and glory; its tears are turned to
pearls; its blindness and
darkness is turned to light. It takes the presence of
Jesus to work the miracle
of the transformation of the Jericho Road.

The blind man did not sit in the sand and say to himself,
"I am healed-- I can see-- I can see now if only I can believe I am
healed and can see, then I
will be! ... " No. He heard
that Jesus of
Nazareth was passing by. He cried, "Jesus! Jesus! Help me!
Please help me,
for I can not help myself!" Then do not forget the words
of Jesus, "What
wilt thou that I should do unto
thee?" Mark you, it was not "What
wilt thou that you should do," but "What
do you want Me to do?"

True, He said, "Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee
whole." "Thy faith," said Jesus. Where did the blind man
get it?
Who gave it to him? If it was his faith all the time, why
was he not healed
before Jesus came that way? If you give me a watch, it is
my watch. But I got
it from you. There is faith in my heart as I write, but I
know where I got it.
Not affirmation-- not from will-- not from belief-- not
from mental grasps or
understandings-- but from Jesus. He is the Author and
Finisher of our
faith. Oh, matchless grace! Oh, love
divine, all love excelling! Thus has the joy of heaven to
earth come down!

Once upon a time there was a tiny little seed planted in
the
ground. It was an acorn. After a while it shed its little
overcoat and cuddled
away in the arms of mother nature,
so that it might be
fed and grow. All through the long winter night she kept
that little seed warm;
and when the springtime sun came out, its
little acorn
heart burst open with joy and delight. It started to grow.
Then a man came along
and put a big heavy rock over the little seed. It
commenced to worry and to
fret for fear it would never be able to raise its little
head to where it could
see the light of day. It wanted to wear a garland of
leaves for its hair, and
to grow to be beautiful and strong.

One day its feeble hands touched the rock. They were such
tiny, tender, little hands. The little growing tree felt
so helpless. It did
not struggle or try to move the rock which was the enemy
of its heart and life.
It just grew. One day the rock was lifted. It was pushed
out of the way; and
the little leafy hands clapped for joy. Who lifted the
rock? The
seed? No! It was something within the seed which
no man in the world has
ever been able to reproduce. It was God's power that
pushed over that rock.

My friend, you are a little seed. You, too, can grow into
something noble and beautiful for God. The power of faith
can be manifested in
your life until men and angels will wonder. However, when
the battle is over
and the victory has been won, do not say, "Look at what I
have done
through the Lord," but rather kneel at the foot of the
cross and say,
"Is it not wonderful that His grace and His faith should
be manifested in
me!"

CHAPTER 5

STRENGTH FOR THY LABOR

THE ONE overpowering impulse which has led me to write
these
words is the desire in my heart to show you the necessity
of relying on and
trusting in Jesus for all the needs of your life. How many
times in life we see
the tragedy of the collapse of the Christian who has to be
brought low in order
that he might once again recognize his true position in
the grace of God.
Self-righteousness is often born of continued victories.
Because we overcome by
God's power and are sustained by His grace, the feeling
begins to develop in
the heart that we have reached a position of
impregnability; and pride starts
to feed the spirit of self-righteousness. We become so
sure of ourselves and
our position that we are on dangerous ground indeed. "Let
him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall." (I Corinthians 10: 12).

At the disposal of the consecrated child of God there has
been placed the resources of that strength which God alone
can provide. It is
the recognition of the miracle of that vital contact, with
its illimitable
possibilities, that means victory over sin and self as we
travel along the
homeward trail. Lose that contact and you lose not only
the hope, but also the
possibility of a victorious life. You are dependent upon
Jesus for everything.
He gives freely. Whether or not you avail yourself of the
opportunities, which
His presence offers, is dependent entirely upon whether or
not you have learned
the lesson of drawing on the Master's strength.

Go back in the pages of the Sacred Word and get a glimpse
of
this stupendous revelation in God's dealings with Abraham
the faithful. The
first verse of the seventeenth of Genesis brings us into
an understanding of
the faithful purpose of the divine heart in a lesson so
beautiful that men must
stand in awe, and angels must wonder. The faith of Abraham
was being tested.
God had made a promise. Never in all of time or eternity
did He make one He was
unable to fulfill! From the loins of the ancient patriarch
was to come the seed
through whose life and service all the nations of the
world were to be blessed.
Numberless as the stars of the firmament was to be his
progeny. Upon that child
was to be placed the hand of the Lord in benediction and
in power.

Night after night the old man dreamed of the happy day
when
that promise would be fulfilled. But the sands in the
hour-glass on the mantel
measured the passing of time. The lazy years drifted by
and oh, how long and
interminable they seemed. The boy did not come. Old
Abraham was ninety, but
still no fulfillment of the promise divine. Ninety-five,
and still Sara and her
husband waited in vain.

Then came the year in which he looked forward to the
turning
of the century. He was ninety-nine; and yet there was no
boy. Reason commenced
to whisper things of fear in his ear. The ground began to
tremble beneath the
old man's feet. His faith began to slip. Up to this time
his walk had been
perfect-- not in self-- but in his Lord. He was getting
miserable now. I
presume more than once he had looked up at those same
stars which he had seen
on the night in which God had given him the promise; and
the misty tears spread
themselves like a film across his vision, until the stars
seemed to dissolve in
a sea of sorrow and disappointment. Reason said, "Abraham,
this thing is
impossible." He thought of Sara's age. He pondered over
his own advanced
years. How could this thing be? And yet-- and yet-- there
was that promise!
Long and fierce raged the battle in the old man's heart
and mind. But there was
the promise-- from God Himself.

EL-SHADDAI

One night a voice spoke to Abraham's heart. He knew that
voice. He lifted up his eyes in weakness and listened with
his failing cars to
the awesome intonation of the Voice which had spoken to
him years before. Then
God spoke: "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be
thou
perfect." What words! I am told that many Jews refuse to
mention that
majestic name of God, "El-Shaddai," but refer to that word
as
"The Name." What does it mean?

The word El means "God," or "The Strong
One." Abraham might be weak, but God was strong. Men might
be moved by the
power of circumstance and the iniquitous forces of life. But
God never. He is the Strong One. But what good
does that do us? Suppose
God is strong while we are so weak? To sit in our
weakness, misery, and
failure, and look at His strength only aggravates our lost
condition. God is
strong-- no doubt about that-- but what about our poor
weakness and need? Then
God spoke to Abraham. He said the glorious and wonderful
words that like a
rainbow of glory bridge the
chasm between helpless man
and omnipotent God. He said, "I am El-Shaddai . . .
"

The word Shad is the Hebrew for "breast." It is
used invariably throughout the Old Testament for the
breast of a woman. It is
the place from which baby lips derive the food that gives
them strength. There
is no sweeter picture on earth than that of a little child
in its mother's
arms. There is no symphony more beautiful than her baby's
laugh. It is part of
that mother's life; flesh of her flesh and bone of her
bone. The life of the
mother flows into the babe. Her strength, love,
solicitude, and care all flow
into the life and body of the sweet little bundle that is
a part of her. Thus
an eternal God wrapped up an infinite truth in the
vocabulary of earth and gave
it as a gift to Abraham and to you and to me.

What God meant was: Draw from Me, Abraham. I am your
strength. I am your sustenance. I am El, the Strong One,
but I am also Shaddai,
the Nourisher, and the
Life-Giver. There is no need
for you to falter, Abraham, no need to tremble and shake
in your faith. Draw
for your weakness from the fountain of my strength, even
as a babe draws from
his mother's breast the milk of life. No need to stumble
over unbelief,
Abraham, but "walk
before me and be
thou perfect," thus saith the Lord.

That is the lesson. God is the source, the unfailing
source,
of the supply that is more than sufficient for all our
need; of grace to cover
all our sin; love that pardons all our iniquity, stripes
that are sufficient
for all our healing; strength for all our weakness. We
believe that; but herein
we have failed. We believe that God gives it, but we have
not learned how to
receive it. The mother gives the milk to her babe, but the
little one must
receive it. The infusion of the divine strength and nature
is dependent upon
two things: your knowledge that God is willing to give,
and your
learning how to receive. As unfailing as the law of the
seedtime and the
harvest; as irrevocable as the marching of the days and
nights in their order
is the great truth that God is always ready to meet your
every need, if only
you are ready to receive.

Praise His Name, He is still
El-Shaddai! Does not Paul admonish us to become "partakers
of the divine
nature?" Has God Himself not told us, "My grace is
sufficient for
thee"? Back of all our vainglorying,
our
miserable spiritual pride and abhorrent self-righteousness
is the God who loves
us and gave Himself for us, and who longs for us to learn
the lesson of drawing
from Him all that we need for every moment of every
passing day.

WHO?

Back yonder we see Elijah sitting in defeat and spiritual
disgrace. He has quit. He of the lion heart has been
beaten on the battlefield
of the soul; and that after he had faced an army! Then
something happens. We
watch him as he goes for forty days and nights without
food, unto Horeb, the mount
of God. In whose strength did he go? Who
told David to advance in his natural weakness against the
giant Goliath of Gath? Who
guided the stone which sped unerringly on its
way? Who gave his arm the strength, and his heart the
courage? Who pushed down
the walls of Jericho; and Who
slew the host of Sennacherib when the Syrian came down
like a wolf on the fold?

Who delivered Israel,
and Who led them in the
exodus? Who opened the prison
doors for Peter and Who pulled back the curtains of glory
for Stephen, and gave
him grace to pray for his murderers? Who dried the tears
of Martha and poured
oil into the broken heart of Mary?

Who was it saved our guilty souls, when we knelt at the
foot
of the cross? Who turned our darkness into day? Who stands
by our sides at this
moment, ready and willing to give grace and glory? Who has
strength for our
weakness-- healing for our sickness-- power for our
trials-- freedom for our
slavery-- and grace sufficient for every need? Who can it
be, but Jesus?

El-Shaddai still speaks to the hearts of men and, of a
truth, we can still sing, "Strength for thy labor the Lord
will
provide." Reader, draw upon His Life. Take the grace He so
freely and
gladly imparts. He is more than sufficient for your need, and
it is possible to walk before Him and be perfect,
not in self, but in Christ. I know whereof I speak.

It has been my privilege to be called by my Lord to preach
His gospel over the earth. The greatest joy of my life is
to win souls, as He
leads me and gives me strength for the task. Many of the
campaigns run from
eight to ten weeks, and sometimes the body gets very
weary. One night I was
sitting in an office in a corner of the tabernacle,
feeling tired and at the
end of my endurance. Out in the auditorium a great crowd
was waiting for the
service to begin, and through the thin boards I could hear
the murmur of people
at prayer. Then the door opened. A minister stood there
and said, "Brother
Price, there are about five hundred people here tonight
who expect to be
anointed in the name of the Lord for healing."

Five hundred- and I did not have the strength I needed to
preach. Then there was that multitude to meet in the name
of my Lord. In my
heart I felt for a moment like running away. Then I
wondered if I could dismiss
the sick and tell them to come back some other night. I
looked through a crack
in the wall, and there I saw the poor sufferers waiting
for a poor human like
me to come and tell them of Jesus.

Suddenly my nerves seemed to go to pieces. I
dropped to my knees on the floor and wept. "Oh, Jesus," I
cried,
"I can't. I have not the strength. I am so weary and
tired. I want to,
Lord, but I am not equal to this task."

Then I heard that still, small voice in the depths of my
heart. "You have no strength . . . Why not take mine?" For
a moment I
thought, could this be real? Why not? Did not the Lord
give His strength to
people in the olden days? Why not now? "Thank you, Lord,"
I said as I
waited for what He would do. Then I felt a warm glow come
over this body of
mine. I walked out on the platform. Many times I preach
from notes, but not
that night. There was no weariness, no fatigue; nothing
but the conscious
knowledge of His strength.

In faith I assured the sufferers that all would be reached
that night. When the midnight hour
came, I was still laying these unworthy hands of mine upon
human heads, in the
name of the Lord Jesus. The power of the Lord was present
to heal them, because
the Lord Himself was there. Then came
the last one. I
prayed; pronounced the benediction; and went home. As I
was about to retire, I
became conscious again of a great weariness. But I was not
too tired to drop on
my knees and thank Him for what He had done that night. He
was still
El-Shaddai. I knew that He had imparted His
strength to meet my weakness. He will meet your
weakness too. He will meet
your every need, and no good thing will He withhold from
them that walk
uprightly.

One great requisite for the reception of the strength that
He can give is that you feel your need
of that strength. Our trust in Him is personal confidence;
and when we come on
the basis of His merit, He gives to us His faith. We do
not look at
Jesus, but unto Him. So many follow
Him afar off.
They look at
Him; but are not near
enough to look unto
Him. They lag
behind while they dissect creeds, handle dogmas, contend
with others about
interpretations, and lose thereby the sweetness of His
presence.

Two men once came to me with a controversial question, and
asked for my opinion regarding it. I listened to their
statements; and when
they had finished, I had to acknowledge that I did not
know the answer. So I
said, "Brethren, the important thing is not what you
believe, but in whom
you believe." You will perhaps at first be inclined to
disagree with that
statement on the ground that what you believe is of
tremendous importance. Yet,
when at last you reach the portals of "home," you will not
tell the
angels that you climbed to heaven on the rungs of the
ladder of creed, but you
will testify that you are at home because of the One who
died for you on the
Cross of Calvary.

WHICH WOULD YOU BE?

Have you then learned the lesson of drawing on Jesus for
the
needs of your life? Have you found the sweetness of
abiding in the Lord? Have
you come to the realization that after all you are a
miserable failure? Have
you come to the place of the consciousness of your great
need, and your pitiful
lack of strength with which to overcome? Would you not
rather be in the shoes
of the Publican on the temple steps than in the shoes worn
by the Pharisee who
felt so strong in his righteousness and so proud of his
deeds? Only as we decrease
can Jesus increase.
That means to decrease in our self-life, in our
self-esteem, and in our self-confidence.

The house which was built on the sand felt proud of
itself,
until the wind began to blow and the tempest to rage. The
house that was built
on the rock cared not for the tempest, angry winds or
waves; and when the
lashing gales began to scourge it, it was able, having
done all, to stand in
the evil day. The strength was not in the house, but in
the rock. It
was not the house that gave the
rock its strength, but it was the rock which gave strength
to the house.

Christ can be your all in all,
not
only in the picture that is framed in the border of a
beautiful theology, but
also in practice and reality every moment in every day of
the passing years. He
invites you to prove Him. He admonishes you to test Him.
Why be empty when you
can be full to overflowing? Why be hungry when you can be
fed? Why wander like
a lost child on the desert wastes of life, crying because
you know not the way
of your tomorrows? Better by far it is to put your hand in
His and hear the
whisper of His voice divine, "Follow me; I'll guide thee
home."

Then the thing, undreamed of in any Arabian Nights of
fiction, becomes real in Christ. The desert turns into a
trail of flowers; and
the heart throbs pull at the bellropes
of heaven
until the music of the skies is heard again by mortal
ears. The rocky hills are
but the paths which lead upward to a transfiguration
trysting place, together
with the saints; as we love Him, who leads and guides us,
more and more with
every step of the way.

Oh, Soul
of Mine, boast not now-- nor in eternity-- of your
accomplishments in thought
and deed. The star of feeble service seems dim indeed in
the light which
streams from the Cross. The labor of our human hands is
forgotten as we look
through our tears at the hands that were wounded on the
Tree. The titles and
degrees we bear in pride will hang their heads in shame,
when they behold the
inscription at the head of the Cross. The things we have
done will seem so
small in comparison with the things which He has done. How
wonderful His
leadership! How marvelous His grace! How far beyond the
reach of the mind which
has not been illumined by the power of the Holy Spirit is
the truth that here
and now He is willing to impart more than sufficient to
meet our every need. He
will do it now. He is still El-Shaddai, the God Who is Enough.

At a recent camp meeting an elderly lady listened to the
truth set forth on this printed page. She was so very
sick! Over and over again
she had been anointed; over and over again to no avail. At
the end of the
service I saw her sitting quietly, but the expression on
her face told me of
the conflict within. Suddenly she clasped her hands in
prayer and said so
appealingly, "Oh Jesus, I have tried so long with this
poor faith of mine.
Please give me some of yours." He did!

That is the secret of Christian victory. That is the
secret
of overcoming. Laying your burdens at His feet-- to leave
them there and never
again carry them around like an old worn-out garment-- is
the confidence the
Lord desires that we enjoy. That is the message of the God
Who is Enough. Enough for whom? Why, for you, of course.
Enough
for when?For now,
of course. That is the provision of El-Shaddai!
Then as you march daily
along the trail of time to the portals of eternity, you
will be conscious of
heaven on earth. As you draw nearer and nearer to the day
when you can tell the
angels you are coming, the songs of grace and glory will
resound throughout the
country of the homeward trail-- His presence-- His
strength-- His power--- His
love--- His faith-- His grace-- and you will find yourself
singing as onward
and upward you go—

"All the way my
Saviour leads me,

Cheers each winding
path I tread,

Gives me grace for
every trial,

Feeds
me on the Living Bread.

"When my spirit cloth'd
immortal

Wings its flight to
realms of day,

This my song through
endless ages,

Jesus led me all the
way."

Oh, the wonders of El-Shaddai, the God Who Is Enough!

CHAPTER 6

YOUR MOUNTAINS ARE MOVED

THE BETHANY ROAD
twists and winds around the shoulders of the hill,
mounting in one direction
higher and higher, until it comes almost abruptly to the
walls of Jerusalem.
In the other direction it coils downward toward the narrow
defile and the
rocky, inhospitable country which stretches away to the
plains of Gilgal and the Dead
Sea. One day
Jesus and His disciples were walking along that road on
their way to Jerusalem.
Jesus was hungry. That hardly seems possible, and yet He
was.

Imagine God being hungry in a world in which everything
that
grew was there because of His own creative genius and
power. But Jesus was also
human. When He left His throne and His kingly crown, it
was to share with men
the joys and sorrows and even the problems of everyday
life. He not only knows
all about our troubles, but He shares them with us, too.

On the hillside was a fig tree full of leaves. The Master
and His disciples approached that tree to see if there
were any figs thereon.
It had nothing but leaves. No fruit hung on its branches.
No figs presented
themselves to the eyes. It was a fig tree without figs. So
the Lord cursed it
and declared that no man in the future would ever eat of
its fruit, for never again
would it bear any. Now why did Jesus do that? He
knew there were no figs on it before ever He approached
it. If He could see
Nathaniel under the fig tree when he was out of sight,
could He not see figs in the fig tree, if any had been there?

Jesus never did things without a purpose. There was a
motive
back of all His words and works. There must have been a
meaning in the
incident. There was a lesson He wanted to bring to the
disciples then, for had
the incident been devoid of teaching, it never would have
happened. There was a
lesson He wanted to preserve for you and me, for if there
had been no such
motive, would it ever have occupied such precious space
within the covers of
the Book? What was the lesson, and why was it taught?

Into Jerusalem
went my Lord with His followers. Out of the temple they
drove the merchandisers
who were profaning the sacred place with their
commercialism. The following day
they were back on the Bethany Road.
Peter saw the fig tree. He noticed it was dead-- dried
up-- and withered. In
amazement and surprise he cried out, "Master, behold!" and
he pointed
to the fig tree and called attention to the fact that it
was withered away.
Then Jesus spoke-not to Peter alone, but to all of them.
Here was the purpose.
Here was an object lesson which God, who became man, was
going to use in order
that men might understand God in their humanity. There was a motive
behind the cursing of the tree. So Jesus said,
"Have faith in God."

By my side is my Greek Testament. Let me quote word for
word
that entire sentence in the order in which the words come,
remembering that the
structure of Greek sentences is different from that of our
English. Here is the
sentence in the Greek: "And answering, the Jesus says to
them: “Have you
faith of God?"' That is the actual, word-for-word
translation from the
original.

Then the Master went on to tell them that if they had such
a
faith, not only would a little fig tree dry up at the
exercise of such faith,
but that mountains could be removed and cast into the sea.
The lesson was that
of the irresistible power of the faith that was the faith
of God. It was indeed
mountain-moving faith. One of the requirements, as you
will see by reading the
record in Mark 11:22-26 is that there be
no doubt in
the heart about the consummation of the miracle-- nothing
but a belief that the
thing you desire and pray for will come to pass. When
those conditions are met,
then the miracle-- whatever it is-- has to happen; for
back of it is the Word
of God, and back of His Word is His power. It is His power
which made the fig
tree, the mountain, and everything that is; for it was the
creative genius of
the Eternal One, Who brought into being all things that
are. His word brought
cosmos out of chaos.

Now let us ask God to send the Holy Spirit with truth
divine
and bring the illuminating light of His presence to these
minds and hearts of
ours. Generally we interpret that scripture, "Have Faith
in God," to
mean that we have confidence in God's power to move a
mountain. We say in our
hearts, "If only I have faith enough in
God; if only I can believe hard enough; and if only I can
get doubt out of my
heart, then God will move that mountain."

AN IMPOSSIBILITY

You are trying to do the impossible. Your faith would
never
be strong enough or pure enough for that, though you were
to struggle for a million
years. What a mistake it is to take our belief
in God and call it faith. How my
heart has bled when I have seen some of God's dear
children (and so have you)
struggling to believe for victory over sickness, because
they have not
discerned the difference between belief in the power of
God to heal (which
belief even the devils have) and the faith
of God which brings the victory. There is a great
deal of difference
between what we call the faith of man in
God, and the faith of God that is
imparted to man. Such faith is not the child of effort,
neither is it born of
struggle.

If it is the faith of
God, then we get it from Him, and not
from our mental attitudes or affirmations. Jesus did not
say, "If you have
the power to believe that God will remove that mountain,
then He will do
it." Neither did He say, "If you can believe hard enough
that it is
done, then it will be done." But He did say, "Have the faith of
God." In other words, get some of God's
faith; and then when you have that, you will have the only
power with which
mountains can be moved and cast into the sea.

But you tell me that in the second part of His statement
He
talks about believing with the heart and having no doubts.
The second is
impossible without the first. You simply cannot
believe without the alloy of doubt until
you have the faith of God. It takes God's faith to clean
up these human hearts
of ours of all the debris, the fears, misgivings and
doubts.

The groans and the struggles we have heard come from
people
who have tried to believe it is done without having God's
faith! They might
have confidence in His power,
and belief in His
promise; but to possess His faith is something else.

All this has led me to believe that it is far more
important
that we seek the Healer than healing. In the secret of His
presence there is a
hiding place for the soul. As the life empties itself of
the world and its
contacts, it makes room for the things which God can impart. Have
you noticed that at the end of the statement our
blessed Lord made to His disciples about the faith that
would move mountains,
He tells them to be sure to forgive
everybody against whom they might have some grudge or
feeling? Why does He say that in connection with this great
lesson on mountain-moving faith? Is it not because of the
fact that, when God
would impart His faith to us, He does not want to find a
channel which is
choked by hate and an unforgiving spirit?

The frailties of human nature beset us on every hand and
side; and the good Lord knows they do. With what patience
and care He must
watch over us and deal with us; and how many, many times
His grace is wrapped
around us like a blanket which covers our imperfections;
and we hear His voice
of love when we do not deserve it. Like
as a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.
I do not mean to
imply that He demands perfection of life and conduct
before He imparts the
grace of His faith, but perhaps there will be things which
He will require of
us in order that His blessings He might impart. A God of
infinite and eternal
love wants no malice in the hearts of His children. How
can we, who have been
forgiven so much, refuse to forgive those who perchance
have transgressed
against us?

The meaning of the Lord is clear. He is saying that if we
are to become the recipients of the faith which is the
faith of God, then we
must forgive all who trespass against us . . . It is into
such a yielded heart when
the soul cries out its need of God because of its own
helplessness-- that the
benediction of His faith comes; and with it the consciousness
that it is there.

A WOMAN'S STORY

How well I remember a woman who came to the meetings some
years ago in need of healing and prayer. She seemed to be
such a noble
character, and her family loved her devotedly and dearly.
One night we prayed
for her in the name of the Lord Jesus, and she went away
seemingly happy. She
said she was standing on the promises of God; but she was
not healed. As the
days went by, two of her daughters came to see me, and
begged me to pray again.
As a matter of fact, they were almost hysterical in their
anxiety and
desperation. They loved their mother, and they knew that
God was their only
hope. They asked me to anoint her once again. I did!

Never shall I forget the pleadings, the importunities, and
the frantic cries of those dear people as they stormed the
throne of grace.
They tried to believe; but it seemed to be all in vain.
The poor, sick woman
brushed the tears from her eyes as we sang, "Jesus breaks
every
fetter," and went away from the meeting without any
evident answer to our
prayer. Two days passed. Then she came early, before the
service, to the office
door. Here was a different woman! Her face was illumined
by the glow of the
glory in her soul.

"You have been healed!" I said.

She smiled, as she answered, "No, not yet; but I shall
be tonight. I have been prayed for publicly, and I believe
my Lord wants to
touch me by His power in the service tonight, so that all
may see that He is
faithful." There was no strained, tense atmosphere; no
struggle; but rather,
sweet and beautiful rest in the Lord. Then she told me her
story.

Broken and crushed-- almost in despair-- she had gone
home.
She had come to the end of herself and she knew it. As she
knelt by the side of
her bed, and prayed, she sobbed: "Dear Jesus, I have tried so hard
to have faith and I can't. I have failed, dear Lord,
and yet I do believe in your promise and your Word.
Brother Price has tried,
and he has failed. The people in the meeting have tried,
and they too have
failed. Where can I go? What can I do? Speak to me, Lord.
My only hope
is in Thee."

Then before her came the thought of a woman who had
succeeded her as the teacher of a young people's class.
Deep in her heart there
had developed a feeling against that woman who had won the
hearts of the young
people, where once their love and affection had been
showered upon her. Was it
envy? Was it jealousy? She knew not; but she did know that
with the passing of
the months the feeling had become intensified. Now she
thought of her. She saw
then the true
condition of her heart.
Perhaps she heard the Master say, "And when ye stand
praying, Forgive."

This very afternoon she had spent an hour in prayer with
that woman, and God put in her heart a deep and beautiful
Christian love for
her. Sweet hour of prayer! Wonderful place of communion,
where we talk to God,
and in which God talks to us! The wounds are healed! The
envy melted away, and
the love of Jesus flowed in. When at last she arrived
home, she told the family
at the supper table that she would be healed that night.
She knew it; but she
did not know how
she knew it. The
consciousness of it was as real as life itself. There was
no doubt about it.
There was no intercession. That had been a work of the
past. There was no
agonizing and pleading. It was done; and yet it was not!
That is the paradox of
faith. Then she said to me, "My Brother, do you know what
Jesus has
done?"

"I know that my Lord doeth all
things well," was my reply.

"He has given me His faith," she said.
"Honestly, I do not know the moment I received it; but,
praise His name, I
know it is here."

And it was. That night the heavenly breezes blew. That
night
the Christ of the healing road touched, with the power of
Omnipotence, the
sick, weary body of His needy child. That night a cancer
was melted by the
touch divine. A mountain was moved by the faith
of God which had been imparted to
a sick woman by the Lord of Glory Himself.

SEEK THE HEALER, NOT HEALING

Our chief difficulty is that we seek healing instead of
the
Healer. Of what use is it to look for light and disdain
the sun. The woman,
recounted in the scriptures, who had the issue of blood
was not struggling to grasp a
lifeline of deliverance by the
power of mental apprehension. All she wanted to do was to
get to Jesus. All the
poor, blind, miserable wretch on the Jericho Road
did was to crowd into his heart-rending cry the story of
his own helplessness,
and his belief in the love, power, and compassion of Jesus
of Nazareth. Even
though our blessed Lord did tell him that it was his faith
that had made him
whole, yet I am sure that what faith he had was given him
by the Lord Himself.

Can a man generate
enough faith to find healing in walking a few feet on a
dusty, Jericho
road? The presence of the Nazarene was the source
of faith in the days of old; and it is the presence
of Jesus that is the source of our
faith in these days of doubt and unbelief; even as
Jesus said "Without
me, ye can do nothing."

Truly the disciples of Jesus love to read the twelfth
chapter of Romans. It raises such wonderful possibilities
in the standard of
separated, consecrated, Christian living! It is the type
of gospel, however,
that carnal Christians do not like to contact. Paul is
beseeching Christians-- importuning
the children of the Lord to go on from good to better and
from there to better
still. They are not
to be conformed
to this world; but
transformed-- literally, transfigured.
It is to be brought about
by the renewing
of the mind. The
Greek word is renovation.
When you
renovate a lawn, you rake out the old and put in the new.
This renovation is
necessary in Christian living before we can prove what is
that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).

When that has happened, what then should be our attitude? Paul
continues in his writing,
"For I say, through the grace given
unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought
to think, but to think soberly, according AS GOD HATH
DEALT TO EVERY MAN the
measure of faith." There is a declaration! God deals to every man his
measure of faith. What
measure? How much? That depends upon Verses One and Two.
They come before Verse
Three. The point is-- God gives the faith.
He measures it out! The Greek, in a word-for-word
translation, says: "To
each one has the God divided a measure of faith."
Weymouth,
in his translation in modern speech, says, "In accordance
with the amount
of faith which God has allotted to each one."

Do you not see how foolish we are to struggle, and to try
to
believe mentally,
when we ought-- according
to the Word-- to believe spiritually?
There will be head belief, for the mind will acquiesce;
but the renewed
mind will say "Amen"
to all the works of grace, by
faith. Fundamentally, faith is born
in the heart. The heart will accept the unreasonable.
It believes what mind says is impossible. It counts the
things that are, as
though they were not; and the things that are not, as
though they were.

Faith puts
strength
in Noah's arm to build for a hundred years, when there is
no sign of flood. It sends an army marching around Jericho's
walls, when reason says it would take a million years to
wear out the
foundations by the tramp of marching feet. It pulls a nation
to the edge of a deep and impenetrable sea, only to
find that the gates of the "ocean" swing wide on the
watery hinges of
omnipotent power, and that the paths of men are laid in
the depths of the sea. It sends men, without flinching, into
furnaces of fire, and
preserves them
in the dens of lions. Faith chases death
away from its vigil over bodies, and
it brings back
the life that had
fled. Faith! God's
Faith! Not weak,
puny struggles to believe; not futile
efforts to
apprehend the powers of
the Eternal.

Can a teacup contain an ocean? Can a grain of sand envelop
a
planet? Can my poor understanding comprehend the glory of
an omnipotent God? Only as His love divine is freely given,
only as He
chooses to reveal Himself
to me, can I
understand and then, only in part, for were we to behold the
fullness of His glory, no flesh could survive in His
presence. Only as He gives
His pardon, am I saved. Only as He imparts His strength,
can I fight the good
fight of faith. Only as He gives His love, can I forgive
my enemies. Only as He
lifts me, can I rise above the world of sorrow and sin.
Great is the Mystery of
Godliness; and wonderful, beyond our dreams, is the Plan
of His Redemption!

Needy One, at the end of the Road of
Self
you will find Him waiting. The Author and the
Finisher of your Faith is
willing to meet you there. Back of you are the tears and
the sorrows, the
heartaches and the disappointments that are the gifts of a
world devoid of
faith and empty of belief in God; and the sunlit trail
where Jesus stands, is
bright and glorious with the light of His presence! Trust
Him for His grace.
Rest upon His promises. He is the Giver of every good and
perfect gift; and the
road up which you will walk,
together with Him, will
shine more and more unto the perfect day!

If you have Salvation,
it will be because He has imparted
it. If you have healing, it will be because of His virtue. If
you have faith, it will be because Faith has flowed
out of His heart into
yours; and that is the only faith that can move your
mountain.

You can have it; for He will give it! Then will you know
of
a surety that the Faith-- your faith, that
has
made you whole-- is
a gift from God.

CHAPTER 7

GOD WANTS TO MAKE IT EASY

I BELIEVE it is easier to come to Christ, and to ask Him
for
the impartation of His Faith, than it is to try
to work up and generate your own. Unless we look back of
statements, which
would be misleading were we to isolate them, we are in
great danger of putting
a wrong interpretation upon them. We must acknowledge
that, in instance after
instance, the Master mentioned the faith of the people who
came unto Him; and
on occasions He complimented them in His own beautiful
way, because they
possessed it. My question is not whether or not they had
it, but it where
did they get it?

Samson had strength. With it he accomplished feats of
power
that were positively superhuman. But where
did he get it? He was in example, in a physical way, of
what we are admonished
to be in a spiritual way. "Be strong in the Lord, and in
the power of His
might." Paul declared that he was strong; yet he
continually acknowledged
his weakness. But was he not the man who declared, "I can
do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth
me"?

Do you remember that wonderful incident of the miraculous
draught of fishes? The grey dawn of early morning was
stealing over the blue
waters of Galilee. The disciples had toiled all night, in
their own strength, and
had caught nothing. As they pulled in toward the shore,
the Stranger of Galilee
stood silhouetted against the green hillside, waiting for
the coming of the men
who were such failures.
Then His
voice rang out: "Children, have ye any meat?" They had
none. They were
returning from the toil of the long, weary night--
absolutely empty-handed. He
knew that. He knew that not even a minnow had been caught
to give them so much
as a light reward for the long, dark hours of labor and
toil. Then He told them
to cast the net on the other side.

As they obeyed, their eyes must have opened wide in
amazement at the feel of the fish which were getting
entangled in the net. They
could not pull
it in. In a minute
they had caught more fish, following the instructions of
Jesus, than they had
caught in a night of their own
endeavor. Wonderful story, you say? Yes, but I have not
come to the most
wonderful part of it yet! The most unbelievable and
gloriously true part of the
entire narrative comes in the next statement of Jesus.

Talk about generosity! Talk about benevolence and
graciousness! He said "Bring of the fish which ye have now caught."
Who caught those fish? Jesus said they did.
But I ask you again, "Who caught
those fish?" You know, as well as I, who caught
them. It was Jesus.
Yet He said that they caught them. Thus He speaks of our
faith and our love, of
our this and that-- as if we
were anything at all--
apart from Him!

HIS PERFECTIONS

Mark 5:27-28 gives us a beautiful illustration of this
great
truth. Alexander Maclaren
says, "The main part
of this story seems to be the illustration which it gives
of the genuineness
and power of an imperfect
faith, and
Christ's merciful way of responding to and strengthening
such a faith."
Look at the woman. She allows Jesus to pass. Then, timid
and shrinking, she
crowds her way to a place where she can touch His robe.
Does she believe some
peculiar kind of magic
is connected
with His cloak?

After the contact had been made, she fain would have tried
to lose
herself in the crowd. The
whole manner of her approach is evidence that she did not
have what we
have been in the habit of calling
"faith". She did not ask Him to speak a word! Yet, in her
misery and
ignorance, she approached the Lord and touched
Him. She was healed! Instantly, too.
The record states
that virtue left the Christ, in order that the healing and
the miracle might be
consummated.

The whole message of the story is the fact that such
healing is not dependent upon the development of a
perfect faith by any processes of self at all; but rather
on that contact with
Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith, and
the giver of every good
and perfect gift.

Let me again quote Dr. Maclaren:
"The power and vitality of faith is not measured by the
comprehensiveness
and clearness of belief. The richest soil may bear
shrunken and barren ears;
and on the arid sand with the thinnest layer of earth,
gorgeous cacti may
blossom out, and fleshy aloes lift their branches with
stores of moisture to
help them stand the heat. It is not for us to say what
amount of ignorance is
destructive to real confidence in Jesus Christ. But for
ourselves, feeling how
short a distance our sight travels and how little, after
all, the great bulk of
men in Christian lands know of theological truth, and how
wide are the differences
of opinion amongst us, and how soon we come to towering
barriers beyond which
our poor faculties can neither pass nor look, it ought to be a
joy to us that a faith which is clouded with ignorance
may yet be a faith which Christ accepts."

That is my point. He supplies the deficiency. He makes up
the need. When Jesus descended the mountainside from the
scene of His
transfiguration glory, He found a miserable, unhappy
father and a group of
impotent disciples trying to do by their
faith what could be done only by the Faith of the Son of
God. The man was
honest when he said, "Lord I
believe; help thou mine unbelief." Has not the scene
of those
disciples, struggling and shouting, rebuking and trying to
cast out the devil--
without success, been duplicated over and over again in
modern days? But when
Jesus walked on the scene, how quickly and beautifully the
entire atmosphere
was changed and transformed.

Out of the storm there came the calm. Out of the tempest
there was born a beautiful peace. Jesus was Master of the
situation, and happy
was the man who beheld that day the approach of a tender,
sympathetic heart
which was moved with compassion, and overflowing with
divine love. The great
essential is that we talk with Jesus; cease our struggle,
and turn from our
intercession to that trust and confidence in Him which
will invite the
impartation of the faith which He
alone can give.

For twenty years and more I have been conducting campaigns
in which a prominent place has been given to prayer for
the sick and the suffering.
To this ministry my Lord has called me, and to that call I
have responded with
all my heart. To His glory and praise, I record that I
have seen the eyes of
the blind opened. Miracles of power divine have raised
cripples and paralytics
from their wheel chairs and cots, and cancers and tumors
have melted by the
healing power of our wonderful Lord.

But-- do you know what I have noticed? All great healing
services have been
preceded by nights of consecration and seasons of prayer.
When the crowds have
rushed forward, seeking healing, the
meetings have been hard and difficult. When they have
sought the Healer,
rather than the healing,
however, the sweetness of His presence has broken the power of the
enemy; and the sunshine of His presence has melted the
icy feeling that gripped the heart. It may be self-pity,
or even self-love,
which brings as to His feet; but our whole viewpoint is
changed-- once we are
there-- as we at
last see Him!

THE POOR AND THE RICH

It is the poor and the needy who
have been given so many good things, and it is the rich
whom he has sent empty
away. A crippled man was brought to the meetings some
years ago. Those who
brought him told me he was a man possessed of all the
faith in the world and
one who was known in the community for his good life and
works. He was a
good-living man and, no doubt, loved his Lord; but he was
to go away from more
than one service because of the one thing
that he lacked, and which His Master was ultimately to
reveal to his mind.

How the people prayed for that cripple! I can see him now,
struggling to rise in answer to the entreaties of the
people that he arise in
faith and walk. Many times I knelt by the side of his
chair and rebuked the
power which bound him. The days went by and yet there was
no sign of his
healing-- no acquiescence had come from the skies in
response to prayer. One
afternoon they wheeled him to a corner in the building. He
asked the people to
leave the two of us alone, and then said something which
has lingered in the
chambers of my memory.

"What a failure I am," he declared. "I came
here strong in what I thought was my
faith in the Lord. As I look deeply into my heart I find
something about which
I wish to confess. What a poor, miserable failure I have
been. I have been
spiritually proud of the fact that people have pointed to
me as a man
who suffered without complaining. They pointed me out
as the man who never grumbled, although he had a cross to
bear. I grew proud of
my reputation and I can see now that what I termed my
goodness has been
self-righteousness in the sight of my Lord.

He put his face in his hands and wept. There was something
so pathetic about that poor, crippled man,
that the tears
welled up in my eyes too. I reached out my hands and put
them on his head and
commenced to pray. I prayed for his healing; and, as I
prayed, he stopped me. "Dr.
Price," he said, "I don't need healing half as much as I
need Jesus.
I am so hungry for His presence. More than anything else
in my life, I want to
know Him better, and I am content to spend my days in this
chair if only He
will flood this self-righteous heart of mine with His
peace and love." So
I watched the cripple in the wheel chair disappear around
the corner of the
building.

He went away quietly, and my heart went with him, as they
wheeled
him out of the building. All the way home my heart was
singing for him the
hymn:

"Saviour,
Saviour, hear my humble cry;

While on others Thou
art calling,

Do not pass me
by!"

A broken and a contrite heart will He not despise!
How sweet it is to come to the end of self! How wonderful,
after we have toiled
all night and have caught nothing, that He condescends to
wait for us on the
shore! How gracious the voice that tells us to cast our
nets on the right
side of the boat, that our joy
might be full! What determines which is
the right side of a
boat? Why, the way it is going, of course. You
will soon find out where
the right side is if
your boat is going
toward Jesus; and the boat must be empty,
if you would bring the Nazarene on board.

A few days later I was leaving the building in company
with
Dr. Manchester, the man who buried President McKinley. At
the door of the
auditorium sat the man in his wheel chair, patiently
waiting for the doors to
open for the evening service. The afternoon meeting was
over. Dr. Manchester
looked at the face of the crippled man and stopped. Then
he walked over to him
and I followed. "Are you coming for prayer?" he asked.

"For prayer and to receive healing," was the
reply. There was something different about the man. His
voice-- his tone-- his eyes-- such a look of reflected
glory on his face.
I knew something had happened. "Tell me," I said, "What
has
happened. My brother, I discern you have experienced
something that is so
wonderful I can feel its glory, though I do not know what
it is."

Then he told me he had been with Jesus. He had spent the
night in prayer-- not in intercession alone, but in praise
and worship. He told
me that at four in the morning a consciousness of the
presence of his Lord had
overwhelmed him. He knew Jesus was in his room in a
special way. He told me how
his voice in adoration had commenced to praise his Lord.
He said that he then
became conscious of an infusion of the Life Divine.
Something passed from Jesus
to him; and he felt as though a fog had rolled away from
his heart and mind.
From that moment on he knew his struggles were over; and a
sweet and holy peace
was wrapped around his soul. He told us that now he knew when once
again he came to obey his Lord in the anointing with
oil, strength would flow from Jesus, and life divine would
be given him to
restore him to health and strength.

As I looked into Dr. Manchester's face, I noticed that
tears
stood in his eyes. Then he spoke, "Why does this man have
to wait until
tonight?"

"He does not," I replied. "The Great
Physician is here now. Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."

A moment later it was over. Out of his wheel chair arose
that man. He ran and jumped and praised the Lord for his
deliverance. It was a
miracle of power divine. Around him on the snowy street,
men and women gathered
first to praise, and then to pray. Unsaved hearts were
broken, and many were
the penitential tears that were shed! More than once I
have been with a group
of disciples, struggling at the foot of a mountain; and
oh, how my heart can
testify to the difference it makes when into the midst of
our helplessness
Jesus Himself comes walking!

YOUR PRAYERS ANSWERED

Do you not know that your prayers can be answered? Do you
not know that your
burdens and cares
can be left at His feet; that you never need bow your
shoulders again with the
weight of sorrow and care? I am praying, please God, that
thousands who will read these lines will come to the place
of abandonment of
the trail of self-endeavor, realizing that it has led them
into doubts and
fears which destroy confidence and trust in God.

Know ye not that faith cometh
by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God? In my Greek
Testament it reads, "and
hearing by a word
of God." There is a finer ear than the one with
which we listen to the
music of the organ in the church service. There is another
ear than the one we
use when we listen to the reading of the grand old Book.
It is not merely the
intonation of a human voice that speaks as the Bible is
read, for men hear that
Book and yet do not hear the voice of God. The Bible is a
book through which
God speaks; yet all do not hear His voice in the lines!

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by a
word of God. Let Jesus speak to this heart of
mine and doubts will take
the wings of the morning and fly away. Let Jesus breathe a
little word to this
poor mind of mine and heaven is brought to earth. Fear is
gone like a shadow in
the light of His glorious truth. Let Him say, "Bring him
to me," and
then cometh faith-- God's faith-- His
faith-- and my poor heart will cry, "Lord, that I
may receive my
sight." Let Jesus breathe on me, with His love and
presence, and mountains
will commence to tremble, and the fingers of the
foundations will lose their
grip!

That is how faith comes! Not through the channels of human
concepts. Not along the paths of human understandings. Not
by the abilities of
minds to comprehend, or the power of the intellect to
affirm. Reach with
fingers such as those for the moon and you will struggle
and groan in vain to
possess it. But let Jesus speak, and the soul is lifted.
One little word from
Jesus is worth all the words in a dictionary of human
language.

There is hope for the blind Bartimaeus
of the Jericho Road of
today, when Jesus of Nazareth is passing this way. "Hope,"
did I say?
Yes, hope and more than hope; for when He hears our cry of
helplessness, He
will not pass us by ... When He speaks, hope is kindled
until it becomes a fire
that burns away all doubt and unbelief, and the warmth of
a divine and
beautiful faith brings healing to the soul.

O Master, speak! In our need and self-helplessness, we
would
lift our hearts and voices to Thee, Speak the word-that
will be all we need. We
have tried, with the broken cisterns of our faith and
endeavors, to believe;
but their waters have failed!

"Saviour,
Saviour, hear my humble cry;

While on others Thou
are calling,

Do not pass me
by!"

CHAPTER 8

IMPARTED FAITH

THE BELLS of my heart are ringing, because I know that my
Lord is able to supply all our need. The storehouses of
grace are filled to
overflowing and the quantity is of such abundance, that it
is inconceivable to
these hearts and minds of ours. We deal with earthly and
temporal limits, while
God deals with the illimitable and eternal. The measure of
God's giving is
always to overflowing. The apostle stated, "Who giveth
to all men liberally"; and there is no end to His beneficence,
and no lack in His inexhaustible supply.

Does it not seem tragic that, with all this, there is such
spiritual poverty? Is it not a matter that should cause us
to pray, and to seek
His face, in order that we may discover the link which is
missing in the chain
of revealed and recognized truth? Surely when He has enough,
and that enough is backed by His promise, then undoubtedly
there is something
missing somewhere, when we continue in our sorrows and our
needs.

in this Dispensation of Grace,
with
an open door to the presence of God Himself, we can arrive
at but one
conclusion: that faith is the quality or power by which
the things desired
become the things possessed. It is the substance of things
hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen. That is the nearest to a
definition of what faith
is-even in the Inspired Word. In spite of its potency, it
is somewhat of an
intangible commodity. You can't weigh it, or confine it in
a container. It is
almost like trying to define energy, in the realm of
physics, in one
comprehensive statement.

We are told that the atom is a world within itself, and
that
the potential energy contained within such a tiny
"universe" is so
great that it makes the mind of the layman bewildered. But
define it-or attempt
to-and you will run into difficulties. Faith too is like
that. There have been
times when I have felt it stealing over the soul, until I
have dared to say and
do things which, had I allowed reason to take charge of
affairs, I would have
hesitated to say and do. Though it came, perhaps, only as
big as a grain of
mustard seed, it flowed through word and act with
irresistible power, until
people stood in wonder at the mighty works of the Lord.

One thing I do know, and that is, I cannot produce faith.
Neither in me-nor in you-are there the ingredients or
qualities which when mixed, or put
together, will make even a mustard
seed of Bible faith. If this be true, are we not foolish
to attempt to bring
about results without it? If I want to cross a lake, and
find there is no way
to reach the other side, except by boat; would it not be
foolish of me to
struggle to get across without a boat? The thing I should
seek is the boatnot the other
side of the lake! Get the boat, and it
will take you there.

There are certain things which we receive by faith and
only
by faith. There is not the slightest ambiguity regarding
that in the Word.
Rather it sets forth a clear declaration of the truth. Now
where do we get the
faith which will take us across our "lakes"? The answer to
this
question is positive and sure! Between the covers of the
sacred Book there is
mention made of faith as the gift of God and faith as a
fruit of the Spirit.
Whether it be gift or fruit,
however, the source and
origin of faith remains the same! It comes from God. There
is no other source
of faith; for it is the "Faith of God!

Suppose you could obtain faith by mixing any spiritual
qualities, you might like to mention, in the crucibles
of
life. Suppose that faith was something you possessed. Now
we all know of its
power! Would it not be a dangerous possession? Suppose we
could use it to cross
the "lake" when God wanted us on this side? Suppose you or
I had
faith enough this morning to raise
up every sufferer
among us. If we were to utilize such power, how do we know
but what we might be
contravening the divine will, and overthrowing the divine
plan?

A HIDDEN DANGER

Some time ago a lady brought to me a little girl who was
sick. She was a sweet little tot, pretty as a picture,
quiet and retiring; but
a serious malady had fastened itself upon her little body.
The father of the
little girl, though he loved her dearly, was rebellious
against the Lord. For
years his wife had prayed for him to surrender, but he had
always offered some
excuse. We prayed together. Three times that little one
was brought for prayer.
Had there been faith, she would have been healed. But she
was not!

The mother went to prayer! Later she called me on the
telephone and said, "Dr. Price, I feel that God is dealing
with my
husband. He loves our little girl so much, that I think
the Lord can reach his
heart through her. Would it not be wonderful if I could
get him to come with us
when you pray once again? Perhaps, if we could get him on
his knees to pray for
her, it would not be long before he would be praying for
himself."

The next time they came to the house for prayer, he came
along. He was courteous, kind, and solicitious
about
his little girl; but when I asked him to pray, he said,
"No, I don't want
to be a hypocrite."

The Holy Spirit led me to admonish him: "Brother, get
on your knees, and let us look to the Lord together. If
you do, I believe you
will take a little girl home who has been healed by the
touch of the Savior's
hand." He looked at me in
amazement, and
said, "Do you really believe that?" I told him I did. Down
on his
knees went that man! There sweetly stole over the body of
the little girl the
healing virtue of Jesus; and she raised her expressive
eyes to God in a prayer
of thanksgiving and gratitude. While the father was
searching and yielding his
heart, the Saviour spoke to him those words which to an
unregenerate heart
bring peace.

Suppose I had possessed faith enough and could have used
it
at will. Would that have brought as much glory to the name
of the Lord-to say
nothing of the knowledge of sin forgiven to a heart-hungry
father-as the
imparted faith which was given at the time it was needed?

Many years ago, while I was in a Vancouver, B. C.
Campaign,
an incident occurred which kept me awake
most of the
night, with my heart open before the Lord. I had been
praying for hundreds that
night. There was in that meeting the very real
consciousness of the sweet and
wonderful presence of the Saviour. Many weary, tired
bodies had been renewed by
the touch of the Master's hand. They had found deliverance
from their pains and
sicknesses, as they knelt at the foot of the cross. I
turned to Dr. Gabriel
Maguire, pastor of the First Baptist Church, and said,
"The Lord is
imparting faith tonight; the power of the Lord is present
to heal." He
replied that he was never more conscious of the moving
power of God in all his
life.

A minute later, together we placed our hands on the head
of
a man. A feeling akin to a vacuum came over me. I felt so
empty. The presence
of the Lord was with me, but I had no confidence or faith
to pray for the man,
and nothing happened to him! I prayed again. Then I felt
so empty that I was
about to cry out to the Lord and ask why He seemed to have
departed when He had
been so sweetly manifest just before. Instead, I turned to
the man and said,
"Brother, why are you here?
Who are you? What is the
purpose of your coming to the platform?"

He turned pale. Then he made a confession! He told me that
he was a professional hypnotist. He had stated that the
power in the meeting
was the power of hypnotism. He had argued with other
people about it, and then
had decided to use himself as a test case; as he wanted to
investigate
first-hand. Then, he planned to hold a public meeting and
expose the whole
divine healing movement. Now this man had a sickness,
indeed! He needed healing;
but suppose I had possessed
faith for him. Would it
not have been disastrous to have brought healing to that
man? For, remember, if
faith is powerless-it ceases to be faith. You can't have
faith without results
any more than you can have motion without movement.

The thing we sometimes call "faith" is simply
trust. We trust in the Lord; but faith has feet and wings
and power. A man
could not have faith for salvation and not be saved. He
could trust the Lord,
and promise that some day he would come to Christ, but
when he has faith for
salvation, it means he is saved.

So it was with the man whose case I have just recounted.
Whatever faith was given during the evening was withdrawn
from me until I was
praying for someone, who in the providence and will of God,
was ready to receive from Him the blessing He alone can
impart. It so happened
that the very next one for whom we prayed, a woman, was
one of the outstanding
miracles of the entire campaign.

No Christian is entirely devoid of faith. It is implanted
in
the heart as a gift, or a fruit-faith enough to maintain
your salvation; faith
enough to obey the Lord, and do the things which are
pleasing in His sight; but
you are continually dependent upon Him for its perpetuity.
You can not keep the
light and dismiss the sun. You cannot have faith in God,
unless you have the faith of
God. That is why the
Scripture says, "By grace are ye saved, through faith; and
that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God."

Grace and faith are so closely related that you cannot
separate
them. The wonder of it lies in the fact that faith is many
times imparted when
we feel the least deserving. It is not always the product
of merit. Is not that
gif t of faith the beautiful flower of grace? That faith,
which quiets the restless sea of life, makes happy the
heart in the knowledge
that the Pilot will see us through. Has that
priceless possession come
because of what we have given or done?

That faith-given me to touch the hem of His garment and be
lifted above and out of my pain and suffering-dare I
for a moment say that I received it because of my deeds
and words? The faith
which was yours in the hour of your trial-the opening
heaven in vision beside
the open gravethe
angel music s o u n d i n g
through the heart when grief was moaning, and the
poor heart aching and nearly breaking-how did it come, and
why? When I survey
the wondrous cross, I begin in part to understand why
grace smiles on faith as
it goes on every mission and ministry of life.

WHAT MANNER OF MAN

The disciples and the Master are on the waters of Galilee.
The lake, which was so calm, is lashed into fury by the
coming of the storm.
The same lake; the same waters, and-perchance-the same
day! The affrighted
disciples are terror-stricken at the raging of the tempest
and the fury of the
winds, even as you and I would be. How quickly the scenes
of life can change!
It does not take long for laughter to be drowned in tears
and a happy heart
wrung by the cruel grip of sorrow. The incident of the
storm and the calm did
not happen merely for them; it happened because God wanted
to speak also
through it to your heart and mine.

When at last the disciples awakened the sleeping Christ,
He asked them a question. You remember it well! It was,
"where is your
faith?" Where was it? Had it dropped into the depths of
the sea on which
they sailed? Had it fled on the shoulders of the storm?
Had it been dissolved
in the spray that washed their boat? Their Faith was with
them all the time.
The mistake they made was in forgetting the fact of His
presence, while
discerning the fact of the storm! Their Faith was not far
away. Remember the
words of our Lord, "Without me ye can do nothing."

Then Jesus advanced to the bow of the boat. He looked into
the face of the tempest and hurled His command into the
teeth of the storm. The
waves obeyed. The wind halted in its tracks. Jesus had
spoken, and the
disciples stood awed in the presence of His power. Where
was their faith? Do
you not know? Can you not see? It was just as near to them
as it is to you and
me; for let me assure you that the fact of the storm does
not mean that He has
gone! To be needy is no proof that you have been deserted.
It may be the door
that leads to a miracle! It may be God's method of making
you say, "What
manner of man is this, that even the wind and the seas
obey Him?"

Can you imagine Peter, standing in that boat, telling
those
waves to be still? I can-if the Master of the sea had
imparted faith for the
miracle, and that in accordance with His will. It was
Peter who confidently
ministered in sublime spiritual bravery to the man at the
beautiful gate. The
man was healed, and he followed Peter and John into the
Temple,
shouting the praises of God as he went. "Such as I have, give I unto thee," said Peter, and
he proved that he
had it. But where did he get it? He had just come from an
upper room and that
upper room had contained the secret which was back of the
healing by the
Beautiful Gate.

So conscious was Peter of the fact of the Divine
Impartation, that he spent the greater part of his sermon,
that followed the
healing, telling how weak he was and how strong His
Saviour was. It was not
they; it was not their power; it was their Lord.

How different this truth is from our poor feeble attempts
to
transfer faith from the heart to the mind; to turn faith
from a grace-imparted
to a cold, intellectual assent or belief; to look for it
in the unholy
corridors of the will, rather than in the light which
streams from heaven
through the windows of the soul. There is a great deal of
difference between the
cripple who struggles and tries to walk and the cripple
who looks and prays for
the faith by which he will walk; and in my own heart I
know that such faith is
given while the soul waits before God, in the quiet and
beautiful attitude of
trust and rest in His promises, rather than in the
turbulent atmosphere of our
noisy strivings and endeavors. "Wait, I say, on the Lord.
Rest in the
Lord! Wait patiently for Him and He shall bring it to
pass."

Roll on, blue waves of Galilee! Blow
and moan, ye winds that rage, and ye tempests that blow.
You laugh at my
seeming helplessness. You ridicule my endeavors to stand
in the midst of the
rocking of the boat. You ask me where my faith is. You
taunt me about my
condition. My Faith is not far away! He sleeps awhile, to
teach me to rely upon
Him. He sleeps, that confidence in self might be turned to
trust in His promise
and in the power of His presence. No, my Faith is not far
away. I look at Him
and smile; for His voice whispers to this poor heart of
mine, and tells me that if He
can rest in the midst of the tempest and
the storm, then I can sweetly rest in Him.

CHAPTER 9

FAITH IS A GIFT

FAITH IS ONE OF two things. It is either a gift of God,
or a
fruit of the Spirit. Of that there can not be the
slightest doubt. Search the
corridors of reason, and you will inevitably arrive at
the same answer. If it
is true that faith "as a grain of mustard seed" contains
the dynamics
which would move mountains, do you think God would
entrust to our possession a
weapon as potent as that? To have it otherwise, than as
God has ordained, would
not only destroy the entire economy and system whereby
the Christian can walk
in harmony and communion with God, but would put in the
hands of weak people,
such as you and I, an instrument which could be used for
our destruction.

I do not mean that we would use faith for physical
manifestations alone; but that the spiritual reactions
would prove to be a
curse instead of a blessing, and impediments to growth
rather than help. More
than once I have tried to exercise faith, and have
struggled to obtain the
answer I desired to my prayer; only to find, in the
light of succeeding events,
that it was better by far that the prayer was not
answered as I had desired.

That is why God deals to every man the measure of faith
he
needs to walk in harmony with the Divine Will. Beyond
that point, faith will
not be imparted. This lesson to me is so beautiful that
it awakens in my heart
a song of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord I love and
serve. Perhaps I do
not understand the purposes of God, but trust holds on
when faith is not
imparted: and I am happy in the consciousness that He is
working in my life for
the very best.

We should trust Him when we cannot see, and rely upon
Him
when we cannot understand. However, let us not make the
mistake of calling that
trust "faith". Faith works, moves, operates and
accomplishes things
according to its measure and its power. Of course, to
each one there is given
the faith by which we call ourselves the children of
God; and there is given or
imparted to us the faith by which we daily know that we
have passed from death
unto life.

Faith is measured in the scales of God, even as we
measure
the commodities of earth. More than once our blessed
Lord talked about little
faith and great faith. He mentioned weak faith and
strong faith. As we need the
gift or fruit of faith, it is imparted by the Lord, in
order that God's
will, rather than ours, will be
done on earth, and in us, even as it is in Heaven. There
are many times when our desires are contrary to the will of
God. Many times in our ignorance we would do the thing
which would bring sorrow
instead of joy. If we possessed the faith, for use at
any and all times to
bring about our own desires, it is clearly to be seen
that the results would be
disastrous.

The Christian world looks to the life of George Muller
as a
latter day example of the power of faith in the heart of
a man who believed
God. Such a life it was-- a magnificent array of
miraculous answers to prayer.
In reading after his biographers, however, have you not
noticed the fact that
he knew he
was in the center of God's
will? There were hungry little mouths to be fed and
little orphan bodies to be
clothed; and Muller believed that the Lord, who called
him to that ministry,
would supply every need. So when the need arose, faith
was given.

There was no struggle, no agonizing, no battle against
doubt; only the manifestation of an imparted
faith.

He was an ardent believer in fervent, effectual prayer.
Many
times he reveals the depth of his ministry of
intercession. The reason, he
says, that so many people fail to have their prayers
answered is that they have
not learned the value of importunity and continuity in
prayer. Yet, whenever he
came up to a crisis, he would tell the Lord his need in
a most matter-of-fact
way, and simply count it done by faith.
If we are to believe his writings, it was almost as
simple as a woman stepping
to her telephone, calling up the grocery store, and
asking for the delivery of
her needs. Thus Muller prayed to God!

Can you have faith like that in yourself? Can
you possess such ability, apart from the gift and
anointing
of the Spirit of God? To endeavor to exercise something
we do not possess leads
to excesses in the realm of the spiritual; and often the
attempt to use faith
we do not possess drives out what little trust
we have in God. Let me illustrate what I mean by the impartation
of faith.

THE MASTER KNEW

Some years ago I was conducting a meeting in a
Presbyterian
Church in Medford, Oregon.
The Lord led us to hold a healing service one afternoon.
The place was crowded,
and many were standing outside and on the window ledges,
looking into the
building. One of that number
was a little crippled boy
who walked with the aid of crutches. My heart bled for
the little fellow, for
there was such a look of pathos about his blue eyes that
my heart was stirred.
Silently I lifted my heart to the Lord, and asked for
faith for the healing of
the little lad.

Then across the platform there came for prayer a line of
children, most of whom were
accompanied by their
parents. A little girl stood in front of me. Her mother
was weeping. I laid my
hands on her head and prayed.

Nothing happened; but the spirit of the meeting seemed
to
change. There was a deadness
and a heaviness which
weighed heavily upon me. I prayed again; and the feeling
seemed to increase. I
looked at the weeping mother in bewilderment. She was
sobbing. At last she
cried out, almost hysterically, "Why won't Jesus heal my
girl?"

"Where do you worship?" I asked.

"I go to the Methodist Church," was her reply.

I looked at her closely. Then into my heart there came a
suspicion. Just at that moment the Lord imparted the
gift of discernment to one
of the people by my side who asked the woman this
question: "Have you ever
been in Mysticism or Occultism?"

She had, she confessed. Her little girl did not go to the
Methodist Church. She, herself, had not been
there for months. She had been attending a spiritualist
seance week after week.
Then I knew why my Lord had withheld His blessing and
His faith. The mother
continued to cry in her agony of soul, "He has healed
others; please ask
Him to heal my little girl."

I said, "Sister, do you know anything about salvation
through the shed blood of Jesus on Calvary?"

She said she had at one time, but a sorrow had come into
her
life and, instead of taking a little tighter grip on the
hand divine, she had
turned away from God. In response to my appeal, she said
that she would like to
give her heart to Christ then and there, and asked me to
pray for her. She
repeated a prayer of surrender after me, and then I
closed with the words,
"I am trusting in Jesus as my personal Savior, and I
claim the promise of
the blood as the atonement for all my sin."

Into my heart, and into hers
too
there swept a glory wave from heaven. As I reached out
my hand once again to
her little girl, I knew that her days as a cripple were
over. She sprang to her
feet. She was healed! Then I looked at the poor little
crippled boy and held out
my hand for him to try to climb through the window and
come to the platform for
prayer. He did not come. Instead, he fell through the
window, leaving his
crutches on the outside! He too was healed.

The Holy Ghost took such charge of that service, that I
have
seldom seen anything to equal it. Not only were people
healed, but many were
saved. Down the aisle came a dear, old lady who had been
in a wheel chair for
years. She was leaping, shouting, and praising God, even
as they did in the
days when the Savior walked the streets with men. What a
meeting! What a time
to make men adore Him and angels to rejoice.

Now, suppose I
had
possessed faith for the healing of that little
girl. Suppose that when I
first laid hands on her head, she had gone away well.
Her mother would have
taken it as a sign that the seance was in the order of
the Lord, and from that
moment on she would have been more deeply enmeshed in
the spiritism
that I do not believe is of God. So, when I prayed in my
lack of understanding,
the spirit of faith and assurance was lifted from me.
How empty I felt. Then,
when the mother accepted Jesus as her personal Savior,
faith was imparted
and the work was done. Instead
of struggling to be healed, how much sweeter and richer
life would be, were we
to look to Jesus who is "the Author and the Finisher of
our faith."

A HAPPY MORNING

One March morning, some years ago, I left home feeling
the
love and presence of the Nazarene in my heart. I was on
my way to pray for a
poor woman who had lost her mind, and who was confined
in an institution set
apart for such sufferers. I can hear now the sobs of her
husband, as he cried
in desperation from the broken condition of his heart.
Disaster-- suddenly,
without any warning-- had struck a beautiful home with
the rapidity of a
lightning flash. God was their only hope, and they knew
it. I was anxious to
pray for that woman and had gone forth confident that
the Lord would hear and
answer prayer. She was in such a helpless condition, and
in the grip of an evil
spirit! When at last I arrived at her room, she cried
out in blasphemy and
obscenity in a voice that was not her own.

That morning we saw no visible answer to our prayers;
but
the poor, distracted man grasped me
by the lapels of my coat
and hoarsely insisted that we refuse to give up and
instead keep
storming the Throne of Grace for the healing which Jesus
alone could give.
Accordingly, I called my church to prayer; and called
other churches too. We
agreed to pray for an entire day for the deliverance of
the poor sufferer, and
more than one prayer warrior resolved to stay upon his
knees until the woman
was delivered.

About four o'clock
that afternoon, while praying near the altar of the
church, I felt the Spirit
of the Lord come upon me. Under the impulse of that
anointing, I stood to my
feet, and trembling with emotion and the glory of His
presence, I announced
that our prayers had reached through, and that the
answer we desired was on the
way. I stepped to the telephone and told the husband of
the woman, that I
believed we had received the victory. We had! The
following day, after a brief
season of prayer and anointing, she arose in victory and
triumph, and went home
once again to her adoring husband and children. I knew
the moment the evil
spirit left her body. I was conscious of the moment he
released his grip upon
her poor soul.

I knew that the Faith of the Lord Jesus Christ had been
given-- released-- at that moment of victory. I could
not release His Faith
myself; if I could have, in my limited understanding of
God's purpose, she
would have been healed the first time I prayed. But it
was not until the Lord,
in His Omniscience, released in me the faith he had
imparted in love and grace,
that the miracle of healing took place. Our possession
of The Faith, as a grain
of mustard seed, is ever subject not only to His impartation
but also to His
control.

A woman said to me the other day, "Pray for me, please.
I have all the faith in the world." I knew what she
meant. We hear that
expression so many, many times. My reply was, "Sister,
if you have that
much faith, why are you sick?"
She looked at me
strangely. Then, after a few moments of thought, she
went away to pray for
faith, "as a grain of mustard seed."

I am standing now in spirit, even as I write, on the
hills
of retrospection. I am looking back over the way my
Saviour has led me. I can
see the campaigns, in Canada
and the United States,
in which by the grace of God I have been privileged to
pray for as many as ten
thousand people in a single month. One cannot do that
without having some
experiences stamped indelibly on the mind. In one
meeting the atmosphere will
be tense and hard; prayer seems to be in vain, and our
efforts to bring victory
meet with seeming failure. Then a sweep of glory and a
rush of the power of the
Holy Spirit will lift an entire audience to the portals
of Heaven.

There I have felt the kiss of the breezes of Heaven on
my
cheek, and have seen audiences so transported and lifted
in spirit that they
have sung with truth, "This is like heaven to me." Such
meetings have
only emphasized the great truth that man in
himself is helpless before "the powers of the air"
and that there
must be a manifestation and evidence of the presence and
power of the Lord
Himself.

"Without
me," said the Savior, "you can do nothing." We
reply
foolishly sometimes, "Oh, yes, I can, for I have the faith.
I can use it, exercise it, and bring things to
pass with it, for the Word says that if we have faith,
we can move
mountains." To such, I would say, "Go ahead, try it, and
see what is the result."

All things are possible to them that believe. But it is
important what you believe. To believe that you, apart
from grace and divine
impartation, are the possessor of a power that can
remove mountains is
dangerous indeed. I know many who have tried such a
program in their own
strength, and perchance on the basis of
self-righteousness, but sorrow has been
their lot, instead of joy.

THE VICAR'S DAUGHTER

When you believe Jesus--
well, that is a different thing! When you believe in HIS
presence and promise,
HIS power, HIS grace, and HIS strength, then you are
marching on the victory
highway toward the hills of answered prayer. As you decrease
He must
increase. The less of self, the
more of Him. The more
the crucifixion of the self-life with
its spirit of pride, the more the resurrection rays of His life will
impart power and health to your soul and
body.

There is one meeting I shall never forget.
It was held in the arena in Winnipeg
some years ago. Assisting in the campaign was our dear
friend, Archdeacon Fair,
of the Anglican Church. He brought to the meeting one of
his Vicars, a godly
clergyman, named Hobbs, This dear brother had a
daughter who had been sent home
from the most famous clinic in America
to die. There was no hope as far as man was concerned.

So the two reverend gentlemen brought that woman to the
meeting when she was in such excruciating pain that she
was under the influence
of opiates. She had to take them in order to live at
all, for the suffering and
pain was unendurable. She sat in a large chair--
cushioned and surrounded by
pillows. The rink was filled, not only with people, but
with the presence of
the Lord.

Toward the close of the service, I felt an unusual-- but
now
familiar-- feeling coming into my heart. I was literally
melted in His Presence
Divine. I turned to a minister sitting near and said,
"The Lord is in this
place and I think He is going to work a miracle tonight
that will shake this
meeting with the manifestation of His power." No sooner
had I said those
words, than I
felt an impartation of
faith for the sick woman.

I did not delay. Stepping over to the side of Archdeacon
Fair, I asked him to pray with me for the daughter of
this Vicar. He grasped my
hand and said, "My Brother, I can feel the presence of
Jesus in this
meeting in a way I have never felt Him before in all my
life. I feel that He
will work this miracle tonight." He did! Upon the poor,
weary, sick body
of this girl, the Hand Divine was laid; and she rested
in the Arms Everlasting.
We could see the flush of health come back to her
cheeks. She did not die. She
lived, and she lives today as a living testimony to the
power of our wonderful
Lord.

A year later, when I visited that same building once
again,
I stood on the very spot where the Lord visited me that
night. As I stood
there, I remembered what I had been doing and what had
happened at the moment
He imparted to me the faith that my own poor heart
lacked. That is why I say
that faith is a gift
of God. You do
not possess it to use at will, but for the purpose for
which He gives it and
permits you to keep it.

Let me repeat. He gives us the necessary faith for all
things that are in accordance with His blessed will.
That faith is first given and then grows as a fruit of the
Spirit. But for the
mountain-moving faith which banishes disease and sweeps
away all barriers by
miraculous power, I still maintain that such faith is
possible only
when it is imparted and that when it is the Savior's will.

So, put all
your
trust in Jesus, for your help cometh alone
from Him. Lean hard on the Master's breast, for only as
you contact Him can you
drink in the sweetness of His presence; and let not the
devil deceive you into
believing in the power of your own
spiritual attainments-- for without the Man of Calvary
you can do nothing.

Trust Him when faith is withheld, and praise Him when it
is
given. Remember that "He doeth all things well." You and
I would
blunder and err along the pathway, were it not for His
restraining and
withholding hand, as well as His bounteous provision for
our every need. The
things that seem good to you today, could wear the robes
of sorrow in your
tomorrows. How much better it is to let Him have His way with
you, than to always try to have your way with
Him.

That is my message. It is Jesus! Only
Jesus. The Christ of Calvary who is the Giver
of every good and perfect
gift is also the Author and Finisher of your faith.
Rejoice in the love that will
not let you go! Be happy in the presence of a Friend who
knows you better than
you know yourself. Then some day when the toils of life
are the greatest, you
will sing:

"All the way my
Saviour leads me,

Cheers each winding
path I tread;

Gives me grace for
every trial,

Feeds
me on the living bread.

Though my weary steps
may falter,

And my soul athirst
may be,

Gushing from the rock
before me,

Lo, a spring of joy I
see."

And what greater joy can there be than the possession of
that faith which is The Faith of God!

CHAPTER 10

FAITH IS A FRUIT

CHRISTIAN experience is a great adventure. We never
arrive
at the finality of that walk or experience. No matter
what mountain peak we
climb today, there is always another one to be climbed a
little way ahead. The
future is greater than the past, for there are Elysian fields
and meadows of glory that have never been explored. It
is this great truth
which presents such a challenge to the follower of the
Lord Jesus. Under His
leadership-- for He never drives or coerces-- we are
privileged to climb in
spirit very near to the gates of a world that human eyes
can not see; and are
kept by the Peace of God which passeth all
understanding, through Christ Jesus.
It is then we begin to comprehend the incomprehensible,
and to watch the
apocalypse of the mysteries that are hidden to so many.

Of one thing, among many, the Bible speaks with no
uncertain
voice. It distinctly states that spiritual things are
discerned only with the
mind of the Spirit. The finite mind of man is incapable
of understanding, not
only the Infinite, but also the things which pertain to
the Infinite. The
reason for this is that they are two distinct and
different realms. There is no
gate which leads from one to the other, apart from the
Lord Himself; and there
is no method by which man has ever been able to
understand or approach God,
except through our Savior.

He said of Himself, "I am the door; no man cometh to
the Father but by me." If it were possible for man to
enter the realm of
the spiritual through the gateways of the mind and along
the roads of the
intellect, he would soon be building a Tower of Babel
which would reach into the
heavens; and the next thing you know, he would be
attempting to dethrone God
Himself. As a matter of fact, that is just what he has
been trying to do.
Nearly all of our modern philosophies, which are
offering substitutes for the
"old time religion", are attempting to humanize God and
deify man.
Thwarted in their attempt to understand the Infinite
with their finite minds,
they have sought to materialize all things which relate
to the Spirit and which
are connected with the power of God.

What has this done? Because of man's limited, finite
understanding, he has attempted to turn "salvation by
grace, through
faith," into a salvation by conduct. He has sought to
put the emphasis
upon what he does rather than what he is. In his sight,
therefore, character
has become the "cross" upon which self is crucified and
the baser
instincts are doomed to writhe and twist but never die.
As a result, the Cross on
which the Savior died becomes to him unnecessary and
obsolete.

All this is of very great importance in the light of
what I
am now going to say. Why has natural man made faith a
product of a finite mind,
when all of the other fruits of the Spirit he has
attributed to God? To many,
many Christians, faith still is their own ability to
believe a promise or a
truth, and is of ten based on their struggles to drive
away doubt and unbelief
through a process of continuous affirmations.

Only the other day I heard a minister illustrating what
faith is. He told us that it is a necessary factor in
the development of every
phase of our lives. In that I agreed-to some extent, at
any rate. He said that
when we get on a streetcar, we exercise faith. We have
faith in the car, faith in
the motorman, and faith in the power that will propel
the vehicle along its
tracks. He went into a multitude of departments
connected with our everyday
living, and used many homely illustrations in support of
what he said were
manifestations of our faith. He concluded with this
question: "If we have
faith in the motorman, should we not have faith in God?"

The faith of which he spoke was not New Testament faith
at
all. It was not even related to it. To say that the
"mountain-moving
faith," of which Jesus spoke, is a grown-up brother of
"faith in a
motorman," is ludicrous to me. No matter how much you
nurture and culture
the spirit which the world interprets as "faith", it
will never grow
into the faith which was introduced by Jesus in the days
of long ago. Let us be
honest! Have not we, also, tried to do that very thing?

Have we not said, "I am going to believe that it is
done, and if I can believe it is done, then it will be
done?" Have we not
looked at a promise, and then struggled and striven with
all our mental might
and main to bring about the result by our own ability to
believe? Some time ago
a poor, deluded man, who undoubtedly loved his Lord,
stuck his hand into a
basket of snakes to prove his faith in God. For weeks he
was sick, lingering
between life and death. He came through all right, but
it was a regrettable
incident which did much to destroy the confidence of
many in real Christian
experience and a scriptural walk with God. He no doubt
believed God; but what
he called faith savored of sinful presumption.

One day some years ago, I had a long conversation with
one
of the secretaries of PanditaRamabai
who was a beloved spiritual leader in India.
She told me the story of how the "cobras came to Mukti,"
following a wonderful and glorious visitation of the
Blessed Holy Spirit upon
the girls in the home and school. It was during the
night that these cobras
appeared and bit many of the girls in the compound. No
doubt for a moment or
two there was great fear; but so wonderfully did the
Spirit of the Lord impart
faith for the emergency, that instead of groans and
cries of anguish, there
arose to heaven a great shout of victory and praise. Not
a girl died from the
deadly bites! Every one was healed. The power of the
Lord delivered them! It
was the imparted faith of God which brought them
through.

There is belief in faith, but faith is more than belief!
There is a rock on the mountain, but the mountain is
more than the rock. Should
the rock assert that it is the mountain, then I would
say to it, "You are presuming too much." The truth that
should be
emphasized is this: the ingredients of one's own mental
manufacture cannot be
mixed in spiritual, apothecaries' crucibles, and produce
faith. A little more
confidence, an extra pinch of trust mixed with a little
stronger belief-plus a
few other things-will not produce the Faith which moves
mountains. You are
nearest the manifestation of this imparted grace when
you realize your own
helplessness and entire dependence upon the Lord!

THE LOVE OF GOD

Galatians 5:22 states
that faith is a fruit of the Spirit. Is it not
time we commenced to
believe it? Look at the other gracious fruit growing on
the tree of the bloodwashed
heart and life. First, there is love. Whose
love is it with which we love? Is it our own love that
has been made cleaner
and sweeter because of something which has happened in
our hearts? No, ten
thousand times no! It is the love of God shed abroad in
the heart by the Holy
Ghost. It is God's wonderful love that fills the rooms
of the heart; and only
the possession of that Love Divine makes it possible for
us to love our enemies.

When Stephen was stoned by cruel iniquitous men, what
made
him cry, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge"? It
was not said
for effect! Neither was it an assumed expose of heroism
in a moment of crisis.
It was the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the
Holy Spirit which
enabled him to bless those who cursed him in genuine
love for his murderers!
The world might say it is ridiculous for a man to act
like that; and ridiculous
it is to an unregenerate heart - but not to the
Christian - not to the redeemed
who by grace have become partakers of the Divine Nature.

It was real love-- God's love bursting through the heart
of
Stephen, which flowed like a river from the Source of
Grace. Was it not much
like our Saviour who spoke, in the sufferings of
Calvary,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"?
It was love
which caused Jesus to say that. God's love! It was the
Love of Heaven in Jesus
paying earth a little visit.

It was not by chance that both Stephen and Jesus said
practically the same thing. Stephen was not trying to
imitate his Master;
neither was Jesus holding Himself up as only an example
for men to struggle to
emulate. The fact is that they both said the same thing
because both had the
same love. It was the love of God in both hearts. Jesus
had it because He was
God; Stephen had it because he had God in his heart.

Human love can be improved. It can be made better by
increasing in quality and quantity; but if man were to
live a million years he
could never make it good enough to equal the love of
God. How do we get God's
love? God gives it, and the Spirit imparts it. Not only
is this true of the
Love of God but it is also true of the faith of God.

JOY FROM THE HILLS

Then, we have joy! Joy is the second fruit of the Spirit
mentioned by Paul in his letter to the Galatians. It is
not the second in
importance, but it is the second in the list of those
graces which the Spirit
cultivates and enables to grow in the heart of the
blood-washed. What is this
joy? Is it dependent upon environment and circumstance
for its manifestation
and expression? Do many other things have to be equal in
order f or it to work
out in the realm of experience?

Some years ago I was a speaker in a camp meeting in a
district in which many of the people were very, very
poor. One night, just
before time for the service, I drove down the road in my
car to get away from
people in order to have opportunity to meditate a little
while before going
into the pulpit to preach. In the modern automobile it
does not take much time
to cover the distance of a few miles, and soon I was
five miles away from the
camp. As I passed a wooded section, I saw a man and a
woman with four children
come out of the woods and start up the road. They were
all barefooted. They
were carrying their shoes in their hands; that is, those
who were fortunate
enough to possess shoes. Only the oldest child of the
four children had shoes!

I stopped my car and hailed them. Smilingly, but with
evident
bashfulness, they accepted my offer to them of a ride.
They were on their way
to the camp meeting. At the gates of the camp they sat
on the grass and put on
their shoes. In just a few minutes they had traveled the
three miles in my car
which would have taken them over an hour to walk. The
next night I happened to
pass that way again, and gave them a ride. It so happened
that I was in that vicinity every night, and asked
them to ride with me to the
services.

On the way, after the strangeness and bashfulness had
worn
off, they would testify and sing, and sing and testify!
Their joy was so
abundant, that it was a tonic to my soul. It helped me
to preach better! They
carried their shoes to save the leather from wearing out
on the concrete road.
They were as poor as the proverbial turkey owned by job
and lived many, many
miles back in the mountains; but they were richer by far
than many who lived in
great houses and who had more than enough of the
possessions of this fleeting
world.

One night, toward the end of the camp, I said to the
father,
"Perhaps, My Brother, the day will come when the Lord
will give you a
better and larger home. You know that He often prospers
us temporally as well
as spiritually. The Bible says that . . . " The
brother interrupted me. A smile of happiness came across
his face and he
commenced to sing:

"A
tent or a cottage, why should I care?

They're building a
palace for me over there;

Though exiled from
home,

yet
still I may sing,

All glory to God,

I'm a child of the
King."

The little folks helped him sing it, and his good wife
sang
it too. When he was finished, he scratched his matted
hair on his old
mountain-born head, and said, "Brother Price, you never
need to tell me
that I got to have a big house to make me happy. If the
Lord gives it to me,
then I will thank Him, but I have something in my heart
I wouldn't sell for all
the money in the world. It is the joy of the Holy
Ghost."

That is what I mean. You cannot get up in the morning
and
say, "This is the day in which I will be full of joy. I
am going to be
very happy today, for I have made up my mind to have
lots of joy." Either
you have it, or you don't. The worldly man can have his
synthetic joy which is
the plaything of environment and the slave of
circumstance. But the Christian
can have imparted joy in the Holy Ghost, and rejoice in
its manifestation under
every condition of life. It is not dependent upon
surroundings; nor is it the
slave of circumstance. It is the gift of God!

PEACE, PERFECT PEACE

Then, there is peace. Oh, the sweetness of that
beautiful
peace which God implants in the hearts of all who love Him! What a wonderful
day it
was for the disciples when Jesus said, "My peace I give
unto you!" It
was not to be the peace that the world knows, for that
peace is false, weak and
flimsy, and can be lashed into a storm at any moment by
the blowing of the
winds of trouble.

The peace He gives passes all human understanding. It is
so
deep, that no surface troubles can ever affect it; so
divine that no human hand
can ever reach it to take it away; deep settled peace in
the soul! It is the
peace Jesus had when in His regal dignity He "held his
peace" before
the howling mob in the halls of Pilate.

Let me ask you (for it is necessary that we recognize
and
receive this truth). Let me ask you again: "Can you
create that peace? Can
you bring it about by a switch in mental attitude, or a
change in outlook? Can
you even so much as develop the Peace that He alone can
give?" You and I
know the answer! Just settle into the arms of love in
the heart of the storm,
and know: "Peace, perfect peace, though sorrows surge
around. On Jesus'
bosom naught but calm is found." It is His peace,
imparted by the Spirit.
All we have to do is to receive it. That is the beauty
of the Christ-centered
life-a life that is hid with Christ in God.

So it is with faith. He does not give it as a plaything
to
be operated for our own undoing and in things otherwise
contrary to His will.
He knows my need. He knows yours, too; and He has given
His promise that no
good thing will He withhold from them who walk
uprightly. So we rest in that
promise; and abide in Him, even as He abides in us.

To know that He is present-- that He understands and
cares--
this is sufficient for me to know the joy which springs
eternal in the
knowledge that all things work together for good to them
that love God to them
that are the called according to His purpose. Then shall
we know the rest that
comes from turning self-reliance into Christ-reliance,
as we cast all our cares
upon Him.

In the development of His will in your life, let me
assure
you that when faith is needed, it will not be withheld;
for The Giver of every
good and perfect gift is the Author and Finisher of our
faith.

CHAPTER 11

THE VESSEL MADE OF CLAY

FEW PEOPLE have realized the close affinity between
the natural
and the supernatural--
between the body
and the spirit.
We have erroneously
segregated the two, and have put them in realms so far
apart that many think of
the Lord as being able to meet only our spiritual
needs. When that is as far as
we go, we inevitably overlook the glorious,
Blood-bought privileges which are
ours for the physical man.

The great, redemptive work of our Lord covers the
COMPLETE
MAN-- body, soul and spirit! It even reaches into the
realm of physical
necessities. Jesus said to his disciples "Take no
(anxious) thought,
saying, What shall we eat?
or,
What shall we drink? or,
Wherewithal shall we be
clothed? for your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and
all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew
6:31-34). These are
not inferential statements but direct and definite
declarations. He not only
said that our Heavenly Father knew we had need
of these things, but definitely promised that He would
supply
them.

There is a very close link between the spiritual and
the
natural. His disciples were not to seek the natural,
but instead to seek the
spiritual. They were first to find the Kingdom and
then, entering the Kingdom,
they would find an abundance which would meet every
need of their lives. That
was the direct promise of our Lord!

Hundreds of years before Jesus came to this earth, one
of
the Prophets of God found himself away from any source
of human supply-- by a
brook-- and there God vindicated His Word to him by
sending the ravens with his
food in the gloaming of the morning and the evening.
The widow's barrel of meal
could not be emptied, because of her unlimited supply
in His treasure store. He
did not supply the meal because she sought it-- but
because she OBEYED HIM!

The order has ever been "SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF
GOD!" That is why the emphasis is on the surrender of
the natural to the
spiritual, and our laying upon the altar the whole of
our Adamic natures; that
Christ might be to us spiritually, and then
physically, all He has promised to
be.

The order of the Lord has always been CREATION and
then
"RE-CREATION". It has been first that which is NATURAL
and, after
that, that which is SPIRITUAL. In the 18th chapter of
Jeremiah, we read,
"The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying
Arise and go down
to the potter's house, and, there I will cause thee to
hear My words. Then I
went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he
wrought a work on the wheels.
And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the
hands of the potter: so
he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the
potter to make it. Then
the word of the Lord came to me saying, O house of
Israel,
cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord.
Behold as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye
in Mine
hand, O House of Israel." Jeremiah 18:1-6.

It has never been the purpose of the Creator to do a
"patched-up job!" The vilest of sinners become "NEW
CREATIONS" when they put themselves in His hands. The
disease may be of
the flesh, but THE CURE IS OF THE SPIRIT! The broken
clay must once again be
put into the hands of the Eternal Potter,
that He may make
it again another vessel, as seemeth
good to the Potter to make it!

A COMPLETE WORK

How many people come for healing, looking for a
physical
touch, only! They want the Lord to touch the body,
whereas the Lord is longing to TOUCH THE SPIRIT! The
physical
manifestation will come; but God is a Spirit, and the
flow of the Resurrection
Life must come through the Spirit primarily and not
merely through the physical
flesh. When Jesus said, "I came that ye might have
Life and that ye might
have it more abundantly"; He spoke not only of
spiritual life, but of that
life which would literally permeate every atom of our
beings, and saturate
us with the glory of the Life
that knows no end.

There are those who come looking for healing, but not
for
the HEALER! They have anticipated physical thrills.
Prayer in instances may
have seemed to no avail; but no petition can ever be
offered in vain, and
unanswered prayer today does not necessarily mean it
will go unanswered
tomorrow. "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou
mayest
prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."
III John 2. The change externally
is frequently superseded by the change internally--
transformed
by His Spirit in the inner man before
the manifestation of the transformation is seen in the
outer man! Certainly the
scripture quoted, from the pen of the inspired John,
throws a Divine Light upon
the subject. Here was PROSPERITY FOR THE COMPLETE MAN,
but, that he should
prosper and be in health was contingent upon the
prosperity which was within!

That is why people who say, "If the Lord will heal me,
I will serve Him as long as I live," are "putting the
cart before the
horse." They are looking for the manifestation of His
power from the outside in, when in reality His power
operates from the INSIDE, OUT! Our bodies are not only
the shells
in which we live; but they are the tabernacles, too,
of the
Most High! Does He not want them well and strong? The
healing rays of His
Resurrection Life do not shine upon us from the
outside, but shine through us from within.

The law of the Lord is PROGRESSION! We are changed
from
glory to glory, but growth toward
perfection is never perfection until
the ultimate is reached. There is nothing perfect in
the human, for perfection
is found only
in the Divine. We come
to Him that we might have Life, and that we might have
it more abundantly. His
life! The Resurrection Life overflowing until we are
inundated in its flow!

It is good when we sing, "Come To
Jesus!" It is better when we say, "Jesus has come to
me." It is
richer by far, however, when we can declare, "He lives
within my
heart!" It is scriptural for people who are in need to
seek out the elders
and to call for prayer from the lips of some
consecrated man, but it is not
God's ultimate. In Him we need no
priest, for He
is indeed our High
Priest. In
Him we need no
intermediary, for He is The One
Mediator
between God and man.

The veil of the temple has been riven
from top to bottom; and the Holy of Holies has been
made accessible to all of Adam's
race who, dying with Him in His substitutional
death, will also rise with Him in the glory and power
of His Resurrection Life!

Then it is we take the whole being to the ONE WHO MADE
IT!
We take it in consecration and surrender. We take it
in yieldedness.
Then the vessel which was made of clay is left in the
keeping of the Heavenly
Potter, who makes it yet another vessel after His
pleasure! Though it be
broken, He throws it not away. With what tenderness
and
love does He reshape us, and impart Himself as our
healing in body, soul, and
spirit.

EATING WITHIN

It is not the evangelist nor yet the preacher who
"saves." God may use an anointed man in the
declaration of His truth,
but no hands-- other than the hands of the Lord
Himself-- ever bear the Blood
of the Everlasting Covenant in its application to the
human heart. The elders
of the church may anoint with oil and lay on their
hands in the name of the
Lord Jesus. The minister may give the broken bread,
and put to other lips the
cup of communion; but that does not necessarily mean
that the recipient
receives the broken Body and the shed Blood of the
Lord Jesus. The communicant
must not only "eat the bread" and "drink the cup" of
the
Lord's Supper but must actually partake in Spirit
of the Sacrifice of His Lord, in order to fulfill the
true purpose of this most
holy and precious Sacrament.

There is no formula for healing; neither is there any
formula or rule by which one can grow in grace. When
we at last come to the end
of self; when in condemnation of our fleshy natures--
in contempt and disgust
for the Adamic life which has brought us Spiritual
sorrow and Physical pain-- we
fully yield ourselves, not merely our conduct but
OURSELVES, to the Headship of
our glorious Lord; then begins the LIFE SUPERNAL. It
is not by imitation but by
participation
that we become of LIKE NATURE--
LIKE SUBSTANCE, "because as He is, so are we in this
world. (I John 4:17).

This transformation so permeates the entire man, that
suffering of the body goes in conjunction with the
banishment of the pain and
anguish of the heart; for whom the Son sets free, is
free indeed! John 8:36.
His transforming glory is reflected in us as we,
ourselves, are changed from
glory to glory, until we shall AWAKE IN HIS BLESSED
LIKENESS!

Did not our Lord say, "Go and sin no more, lest a
worse
thing befall thee? Over and over again He tied up
external disease with the
condition of the inward man. He did not say, "How sick
are you?" or
"How much does it hurt?" but "Do you believe? Have you
living
faith within?" He was not concerned with the condition
of the exterior, but
He always probed beneath the "proud flesh" into the
condition of the
interior. Instead of struggling and striving to bring
about healing by this
prescribed process, or by that, it is much more
pleasing-- and infinitely more
effective-- to place the vessel back in the hands of
the Maker.

The human is ever prone to over-emphasize little
things and
neglect the greater for the lesser. Where we eat and sleep,
as well as other earthly matters, may receive Divine
guidance, but they are not the
ULTIMATE with God. He
wants us to know Him, whom to know aright is
Life eternal. He wants to lead
us into Heavenly realms. So many of us are concerned
about the geographical
aspect of our obedience.
"Shall I go to this town, Lord?" "Shall we live here,
or shall
we live there?" It may be perfectly true that the Lord
has a definite place for us, but it is of far more importance
that WE LIVE IN THE SPIRIT!
With Jesus, the supreme thing was, not whether He was
in Judea
or in Samaria, but that He was in
the center
of His Father's Will.

MY HOME IS GOD

One of old asked Him, "Master, where dwellest
Thou?" Jesus replied, "Come and see." It was so
relatively
unimportant, however, that no record was kept of the
location of the dwelling
place of Jesus. We do not know just where He was
staying. The street was not
given, nor was the number of the house. Was it in the
city, or was it in the
countryside? Perhaps it was beneath the outstretched
arms of some forest tree,
for we are told that He had not where to lay His head.
We do not know where; but we do know that HIS HOME WAS
GOD! He came to do the Father's Will;
and the Father's Will was His Will!

We do know that He lived in the place of IMPLICIT
OBEDIENCE,
"for though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by
the things which He
suffered"; (Heb. S:8) "and being found in fashion as a
man, He
humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the
cross." (Phil. 2:8). Shall we not also say then that
sometimes our
suffering comes to lead us into the
place of obedience? If that be so, should not we seek
our Healer
rather than our healing?

It may be human for us to deal with the effects,
and to constantly look upon and pray for them, but
it is not as pleasing to our
Father as to ask for grace TO EXAMINE THE CAUSE. That
is why what
we are is far more important than
what we do.
"I will lift up mine
eyes unto the hills! From whence
cometh my help?"(Ps. 121). Certainly it is
not from the hills! "MY HELP
COMETH FROM THE LORD WHICH MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH!

We read about faith which will move mountains, and
immediately begin to look at the mountains,
instead of seeking the faith which will move
them. He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith!
If He begins
it, and it ends
in Him, why should we struggle to manufacture
it, when He alone can impart faith! Oh, how sweet is
His lovely Presence, and how marvelous-- beyond
description-- is the exercise
of HIS FAITH and the manifestation of HIS POWER. In
ourselves, we can do
nothing! Absolutely nothing!

We are so cluttered up with attending to the external
details, and so weary in our
unceasing toil, that we fail to hear the voice
of Jesus say, "Come unto Me
and rest! Lay down,
thou weary soul, lay down, Thy head upon My breast!"
It is then that we discover it is not our
faith in Him, but HIS FAITH operating in
us. It is not by the might of
our
prayer, nor by the powerful thundering
of our entreaties, but by the beautiful moving of His Holy
Spirit. One of His dear children who had been
healed in
body, soul, and spirit, and who was a living miracle
of the recreative
power of our Lord, said "It was when I STOPPED that
JESUS STARTED!"
How blessed it is to come to the place where we say,
"I cannot, but HE
CAN!"

Become released
unto
God! Just LET HIM! He spoke the Word-- and a
Universe was born! He said "Let
. . . " and the oceans
were in their places! He
spoke and the stars were in the firmament! All was
done at His command. He has always been
Sovereign! He is that today! He is calling upon His
children for a
complete
relinquishment of all that they have,
and all that they are! Then as the darkness moves out,
THE LIGHT MOVES IN! As self goes, HE COMES! From within us
there then
begins to flow the
"Rivers of Living Water"-- healing streams in the
desert of our
lives. The wilderness, which we are, begins to
rejoice; and the desert, which
we have been, is made to blossom as the Rose!

CHAPTER 12

LIVING WATERS

AFTER THE heat and toil of the day, we find rest and
repose
in sleep. It is out of that sleep we awaken with renewed
strength for the tasks
that lie ahead. It is out of death also
that we awaken! It was said of our glorious Lord,
"Except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if
it die,
it bringeth forth much
fruit." (John 12:24).

It was out of His death that the glorious harvest of
Eternal
Life blossomed! He Himself became the FIRST-FRUITS of
them that slept. Without
death, there can be no Resurrection. He does not impart
His resurrection life
to us because we live for Him; but
because, for His sake, we are willing to die
and allow Him
to live His
Resurrection life in us.

God saw that the human race could not be Divinely
indwelt in its fallen state; lest in eating of the Tree
of Life man would live
forever in his fallen condition. Death
had to come. The royal edict had gone forth, "The
soul that sinneth, it shall
die." It was only in the new
creation that Christ could indwell His people, or the
Spirit of God take up His
abode again within the confines of the entity called
"man". So the
typical sacrifices of the Old Testament, and the antetypical
Sacrifice offered, once and for all, of the New
Testament took us not only into
death-- but through death-- to the power of His
Resurrection!

It was vicariously that He suffered for us on the Cross
of
Calvary. It was substitutionally
that He died upon
the accursed Tree. He took us with Him to the Cross and
then He took us from
the Cross into His grave; and, through the grave, we
went with Him to the
dawning of the first Easter morning, and the warm,
eternal glow of His
Resurrection Life. Positionally,
we are now seated
with Him in heavenly places, for we are in Him, even as
He is in us, the
Christ!

At the time of His first advent, there was no room for
Him
in the inn. His preincarnate
glory had filled the
heavens; and yet, when he was to take upon Himself the
form of man and, through
the Miracle of the Incarnation, be born of a virgin
mother, there was found no
room for Him in the inn. You see, there was no room,
because the rooms were
already occupied! Even so, in these days, at the time of
His advent as the
Indwelling Christ, who will make our bodies His temples
and will Himself
tabernacle within these vessels of clay; if the rooms
are occupied, He will
find no place within to take up His abiding!

If only we could realize that His coming will bring
life,
light and health, we would not be so preoccupied with
giving place to our selfish,
fleshly desires and purposes so that He is crowded out.
He who bore our
sicknesses and our sorrows would come to give us His
peace, rest and joy.

When He comes, will He find faith in the earth? One step
further-- will He find faith in the "earth" which we are? If we
would become less
concerned about what we do, forget our petty bickerings
about Biblical interpretations, and open wide the gates
of our beings to let
the King of Glory in, we would start once again the
music of joy by the angel
choirs of the glory-world. All heaven would rejoice in
such a
surrender as that! Do you believe
Him enough to make room for Him?

FROM THE INSIDE OUT

He does not come as a postman, bringing gifts from the
Father, leaving them at our door, and then walking away! Some people would use the
Bible like a mail-order catalog. They ask the Father to
give them what they
want, and then expect the angelic messengers to bring
them this, or to bring
them that; in order that their own desires might be
gratified, and their needs
met in the way they want them to be. The light, which
Christ brings, does not
shine from the outside in; but it radiates from the
INSIDE OUT! The gifts He
imparts, He administers and operates. He does not
literally "give"
light. He is the Light! He does not impart health. He is the
Health. It is the constant acknowledgment of His
indwelling--
the recognition that the life we now live in the flesh,
we live by the
faith of the Son of God, who gave
Himself for us, and who now dwelleth
within us-- that
brings us into vital union with Him.

Room is made within us, BY THE SPIRIT, for the Incoming
Christ! Commensurate with our surrender and our death to
self, His light, His
life, and His love permeate every department of our
being! Perhaps the
transformation, at first, is spiritual only. Possibly
the transformation is
brought about by the operation of the Spirit within our
spirit, bringing us
light, understanding, and the deep settled peace which
always floods the life
when He dwells within.

Following this experience of His grace, manifested
within
our lives, the cup of His mercy overflows and the physical body
begins to feel His Resurrection Life! Instead of
struggle, it is REST. Instead of agonizing, it is PEACE.
The consciousness that
Christ is dwelling within, and that He has taken the
government upon His own
shoulders, brings us into a blessed quietness before the
Lord. How many times,
if only we could hear His Voice, upon our ears in
gentlest tones would fall: "Be still and
know that I am God."

One might say, "Yes, I believe that!" It is not
enough to believe
"that".
Our troubles in days gone by has
been just
"that". We have accepted the doctrine
as truth, when He is calling upon us to accept HIM as
the TRUTH. It is not
enough merely to "know" that in Christ is health,
virtue, and saving
power. We needs must be INDWELT BY HIM! He does not impart
virtue, separate from Himself. The miracle of healing is
never
separate from the Healer.

When our poor, diseased bodies and lives are
transformed, it
is only that our darkness is SWALLOWED UP IN HIS LIGHT!
He-- as our Health-- overcomes
our sickness. He-- as our Strength-- absorbs all our
weakness. We are STRONG IN HIM for He does not, in the final
analysis, make us
strong, but He
gives us His
Strength. His Presence
does it. We don't. There is LIFE in Jesus and in none
other! Christ and Adam
will not be joint tenants. Before the Second Adam will
move in, the first Adam
must move out. When the Light comes, the darkness is
dispelled.

THE GREAT PHYSICIAN

When sickness visits homes, many call for a physician
who
comes to the house and diagnoses the case. The first
thing the doctor does is
to find out, if he can, what the difficulty is. When he
arrives at his
conclusion, he prescribes the remedy. It is the remedy for
which the patient waits. The doctor is only a means to the
remedy. He takes out a
little pad of blanks, writes down a prescription, and
someone goes to the
drugstore to return with some little, black pills,-- or
whatever the prescribed
remedy might be. The confidence of the patient is in the
remedy. The sufferer
looks for the efficacy to be in the pills. The faith and
trust the patient places in the
doctor goes only so far as to hope that he
knows the remedy; and that he knows what he is doing
when he writes the
prescription. When the little pill is taken, however,
the patient settles back
and waits for the pill to do its work.

How different it is with the Lord Jesus! The virtue is
not
in what He prescribes;
it is not in
doing this, or in doing that. It is not even in knowing
"how to receive
healing"; but it is the PERSON of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Himself. He sees
us in our sick and sinful state of impurity. He knows
the only remedy is
holiness. We have read that, too, and have made the
mistake of struggling
to become holy. There is no
such thing as holiness apart from Him.
He does not leave holiness at the door of our hearts,
and then move away and
ask us to utilize it in the living of our lives!

We go to the altar and pray for sanctification and
sometimes
jump to our feet and say, "Praise the Lord, the work is
done."
However, He does not give
sanctification to anyone. HE IS OUR SANCTIFICATION. When
His sanctification
overflows our lives, we are truly sanctified in Him!
"But of Him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is
written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord." (1 Cor.
1:30,31) .

Even so in Divine Healing, we do not take a
"pill." We do not prescribe to the patient:
"Now you must do this, and you must do that, and then
the Lord will touch
you with healing power." It is not a question of being
made right in our own righteousness, or ready with our own
readiness,
for in James 5:15 we read,
"and if he have committed
sins, they shall be
forgiven him." What the poor, broken sufferers need, in
all their
unworthiness-- and even in their sin, is to come in
absolute surrender to the
Lord-- to LET JESUS IN!

It is not what He gives--
but what He is!
He is Resurrection
Life! He is
Wisdom! He is
Righteousness! He is
Healing! As He once led captivity captive, He will do it
again in you and in
me! As, in the days of old, virtue flowed from Him into
the woman who had an
issue of blood-- so once again-- we too can feel the
healing warmth of that
glorious flow. The virtue is not in what we do for Him. It
does not go from us to
Him. IT FLOWS FROM HIM THROUGH US!

OUR VICTORY

This is the reason then that there must, of necessity,
be
death to self. There must be the acknowledgment of His
Lordship and Headship.
In Adam-- before the Fall-- there was Eternal Life. God
created him-- a Living
Soul! When Adam severed his connection with the Author
of Life, he fell under
the sentence of death; and the Supreme Sacrifice became
necessary to pay the penalty
for sin and death. Our Blessed Lord chose to take upon
Himself the form of man
and to take the whole of humanity, which lay under the
Adamic Curse, with Him
into death-- even the death of the Cross. Down He went
into Hell; but then He
ascended up on high-- into glorious Resurrection Life!

Having consummated this tremendous Redemptive work, the
cry
went ringing through the islands and continents for men
to turn from their
sinful ways and to BELIEVE UNTO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!
Accepting Him as their
Saviour, they were saved! Acknowledging Him as their
Redeemer, they enter into
Redemption. He took their death into His grave with Him
and, coming forth
triumphant from the darkened tomb, His voice rang
forth-- echoing down the
corridors of time-- "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE:
HE THAT BELIEVETH
IN ME, THOUGH HE WERE DEAD, YET SHALL HE LIVE: AND
WHOSOEVER LIVETH AND
BELIEVETH IN ME SHALL NEVER DIE."

To obtain Resurrection Life, we must "believe" in
order to receive HIM. We cannot have Resurrection Life
apart from Him!
Obedience to New Testament precepts will no more avail
than obedience to the
Law of Moses. Neither will wearing
out our shoe leather, doing
this or doing that, prevail! It is only by
RECEIVING CHRIST!

That is the great fundamental! It is the eternal
essential!
There is no
other way. We must
receive Him!
If we receive Him, the
self life has to go; for there cannot be two headships
in the one body. A
two-headed creature is always a monstrosity; and there
would be endless
confusion, and ultimate despair, with two contradictory
governments. When the
surrender of self is made, and we enthrone Christ as the
Captain of our
Salvation, no longer does the Child of Redemption cry,
"Soul, thou hast
much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease,
eat, drink, and be merry"; but rather, "For me to live
is
Christ!" and "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live; yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now
live in the flesh I
live by THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD, who loved me, and
gave Himself for
me." Then comes the flow and
surge of that
glorious Life Divine. It is not a struggle. It is Rest.
It is Strength. It is
Healing; as well as Power. Not the power of destructive
explosive-- but the
irresistible power of His Life and Joy and Peace.

People foolishly imagine that they have to strive and
strain, groan and importune; to measure up to a life in
the high-calling of God
in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Does a river struggle to roll
down hill? Does its
water strive and strain as it gently flows on to where
the great arms of the
sea are opened wide to receive it? We are merely the
riverbed, and His
Life is the river. He flows through
us, constantly giving, imparting, radiating, and
infusing; until our very lives
are HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD! Our natures are transformed
by His glorious Nature
Divine! Our sicknesses, our sufferings, and our pain--
can they maintain their
grip and hold in the warm flow of His Love Divine?

In God's deliverance, we find that He can be severe, as
well
as loving; but in His severity there is always love! He
will not allow us to
take short-cuts; but His command is: "SLAY UTTERLY!"
There is no
other way. The surrender must not be partial; it must be
UNCONDITIONAL! In ALL--
ALL-- our ways, would we acknowledge Him, that He may
direct our paths! If we
do it just for convenience, or to receive healing, is it
any wonder that the
thing for which we pray is so many times withheld?

Doctors do not delight in cutting into "proud
flesh" but must remove it entirely before healing virtue
will come to any
wound in the body. In dealing with the woman who came
from the coasts of Tyre and
Sidon, superficial thinking
might
declare that Jesus dealt rather cruelly with her! His
words must have pierced
her deeply, and one would naturally expect she would be
wounded in her spirit
because of what He said. But when we look further into
what He did, we find
that His seeming severity was baptized in love and
impregnated with His loving
kindness and tender mercy! We find that there are no
short-cuts in ridding
ourselves of the Adamic nature, in order that the Divine
nature might come
forth!

THE WAY TO VICTORY

Beneath the outstretched arms of the trees in the
Garden,
our Lord cried, "IF it be possible, let this cup pass
from Me." And then, in
complete abandonment of Himself to
God and to the purpose and will of His Father, He
finished, "Nevertheless,
not My will but Thine be
done." The only way to The Resurrection was through The
Garden. The only
way to His victory over the tomb was by the way of the
Cross; and He has to
bring us to that place! "Because I live" said He, "Ye
too shall
live"; but we know full well that His resurrection life
in us must be
preceded by our death!

Even the seemingly
good side of our Adamic nature has to be sacrificed with
the acknowledged
bad. Isaac was the son of
promise, yet he had to be "sacrificed" in obedience to
God's command.
Can you not hear the heart-cry of that adoring father--
wrung from the very
depths of his being? Was not Isaac his child of promise?
And yet, the Lord had
said, "Slay him upon the altar of sacrifice." Slay his
"good" Isaac! Slay even the child of promise! But here
was the man
who believed God, and IT WAS ACCOUNTED UNTO HIM FOR
RIGHTEOUSNESS, for he took
that good, living sacrifice and climbed with him to the
top of the mountain. It
was in, and through, his obedience that the revelation
came! The RAM IN THE
THICKET was revealed! It was the revelation of a
SUBSTITUTE, provided by God
and therefore acceptable unto Him. It opened wide the
door to an experience
which is so stupendous that only the Holy Spirit can
reveal it to us,
individually, with all its eternal implications.

The redemptive plan of our Blessed Lord, to cleanse
humanity
for His indwelling, is not by some "get-well quick"
system! Even as
there are "quack doctors" who advertise their potions in
magazines
and papers and who promise recovery for stipulated
amounts, within a specified
time; so there are also pseudo-religious leaders who
have devout ways and
systems of divine healing so called, devised in other
than God's way, but
promising to bring relief. There is only one way! That
way is CHRIST! Many
times in history we have found confusion of tongues and
the babble of voices as
demagogues have cried this and proclaimed that! The
Tower of Babel is not the only place where
such confusion reigned!

THE LIVING WAY

In the days of Jesus' earthly walk, the Pharisees cried,
"Lo, here is truth!" and the Saduccees,
in
contradiction said, "No, it is here." Grecian
philosophers had long
proclaimed that they had the truth. However, our Blessed
Lord silenced them all in His declaration, "I am the
Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by Me." There is
no difference today. He is our Way. He is our Truth. He is
our Life! There is no other
Way! There is no other Life! There is no other Truth! It
is all very well to
sing, "Jesus shall reignwhere'er
the sun, doth his successive journeys run..."

That is true to a degree, and the day is not far away
when
it will be gloriously fulfilled! But above and beyond
that, our hearts should
be continuously singing: "Christ
liveth in me. Christ liveth in me.!
Oh! What a Salvation
this-- that Christ
liveth in me!"
Flesh dies; and the Adamic nature must be
crucified. It may hurt a bit to come to complete
surrender, but that is where
our Lord would bring us in Spirit and in Truth before He
Himself can condescend
to indwell this vessel of clay.

One under testing has been heard to cry, "I cannot bear
this cross!" The Voice Divine responded, "Do you want Me to take this cross away?"
Understanding,
supernaturally quickened, revealed that if it were
removed a harder cross, and
perhaps one to which she was not accustomed, might be
substituted; so she did
not ask for its removal. In a short time, however, there
came the same, sweet
Voice, "NOW, COMMIT IT UNTO ME." Then, with the
committing, the light
broke!-- the glorious light
of revelation that God
Himself was RISING TO TAKE ACTION! Underneath, the
Everlasting Arms were
lifting-- lifting-- lifting; and with the surge of that
Resurrection Life, the Cross became a CROWN!

What a privilege it is to surrender! How blessed it is
to be
invited to lay our all at the Master's feet! How poor
our understanding-- in
comparison with His! How faulty our Adamic wills are in
the light of the Divine
Will which was fulfilled in Christ Himself. Beloved,
there can be no
short-cuts! The inspired Word declares that if any man try
to climb up any other way, the same is a thief and a
robber; for the Lord Jesus
Christ is the only
door to God! No
man can come to the Father but by Him! How sweet it is
to reminisce as well as
testify,

"I've found a Friend,
Oh, such a
Friend!

He loved me
e'er
I knew Him!

He drew me with the
chords of love,

And thus He bound me
to Him!"

We love to speak-- doctrinally-- about the Father seeing
us
in Christ; but to my heart is whispered the truth that
He would first see Christ in us.

CHAPTER 13

THE LIVING WORD

Before Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, godly men
of
old looked to the Written Word. So it was that God
revealed Himself in
supernatural ways to a chosen few, in order that they
might write the inspired
Scriptures for others to read and walk by the light of
the Written Word thus
given.

The day came when the WORD WAS MADE FLESH and dwelt
among
us! As the written Word was the THOUGHT of God, so the
Living Word became the
EMBODIMENT OF THAT THOUGHT, expressed through the
Miracle of the Incarnation,
in the Person of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

That is why every throbbing, vital statement, which left
the
lips of Jesus, was impregnated with this truth: "I AM
COME THAT THEY MIGHT
HAVE LIFE, AND THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY."
(John 10:10). The
words He spoke were SPIRIT AND THEY WERE LIFE! He was
the "true Light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world:"
(John 1:9), for
"God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all;" (I
John 1:5) and
those who follow Him shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the LIGHT OF
LIFE!

We have read what He said, and counted it beautiful! We
have
read about what He did, and have called it wonderful! We
have but, Oh, that our eyes
might see
the divinely appointed purpose of His ministry and that
we might embrace with
our hearts the fullness of His redeeming grace! The
written word can never be read
aright without the revealing light of the Living Word--
The
Word made flesh. The Word which came once to live AMONG
us now has come to
dwell WITHIN us!

Happy that day for us when in the history of eternity
God
reached up to the four corners of the realms supernal--
infinite and eternal-- and
caught all of the glory, all of the grace, all of love,
mercy, and truth, and
then by the Miracle of the Incarnation, He wrapped them
all up together and put
them in a virgin mother's arms in a bundle of pink
babyhood and called His name
JESUS, for He was to save a lost world from its sins!

He is our Life. He is our Healing. He is our strength.
Not
the word of the printed page; not our faulty
interpretations of that written
word; but the WORD MADE FLESH-- THE LIVING WORD-- The
Word of God which once
dwelt among us, but now is the Living Word who dwells
within us! It is the Word
which He is, and which we too can become, as He lives
within; for by the flow
of His life divine we are changed from glory to glory.
When we awake,
we will be in His
likeness!

Many have taken a few of His sentences and built
marvelous
sermons around them. He has become, to a great extent,
an Ideal-- a Pattern for
our living, and an Example for our conduct. Now that is
all very well as far as
it goes, but it certainly misses the mark of the high
calling of God in Christ
Jesus. What He said was a divine revelation of what He is. The
things which He said and did were only the outward
manifestations, the effulgent glory of the great dynamic
Cause, which He
Himself is.

Paul did not cry for wisdom to know more about Him;
but from the hungry depths of
his innermost being, he cried: "I count all things but
loss . . . that I
may know Him,
and the power of His
resurrection!"

It is this VITAL UNION with Christ which is necessary in
our
lives. We must stop
our struggling to
become "like Him." There is no need to spend long hours
reading the
biography of a king when you are, at last, in his royal
presence!

The woman by Samaria's
Wayside Well was greatly concerned as to which mountain
it was, in which they
were to worship God. Was it in the mountains of
Jerusalem,
according to the Jews; or in the mountains of Samaria,
as contended by the Samaritans? Jesus saith unto her . .
. "The hour
cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet
at Jerusalem,
worship the Father ... the hour cometh, and now is, when
the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the
Father seeketh such to
worship Him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him
must worship Him in
spirit and in truth."

HE IS OUR LIFE!

He Himself is the Way. He Himself is the Truth. He
Himself
is the Life!
It is not the mental
understanding, or the intellectual approbation of this
fact, which brings joy
unspeakable to the heart of the Christian. It is the
EXPERIMENTAL realization
of it that floods our spirits with the unleashing of His
divine power and life.
It is the flooding of the spirit of lives surrendered to
Christ with the Light
of the World, Himself!

All creation is groaning for its promised liberation!
"For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth
for the manifestation of the Sons of God ... The
creature itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the
glorious liberty of the
children of God." (Romans 8:19-23). When at last our
"pitchers"
have been broken, His light will shine forth more
gloriously than the light of
the noonday sun! It will be the revelation of the Light
of the World, which is
Jesus, manifested through the lives of His surrendered
and yielded children!

Time was when the presence and power of God was
symbolized
by a wooden ark. That day has gone. The Lord
has written His law within our hearts.
The Incarnate Christ has been enthroned in the lives of
the children of
obedience. The shout is already beginning to well up
from within, and when at
last the cry goes forth, the walls of the Jericho
of this world will come
tumbling down! Just as there
was amazement and consternation on the faces of the
inhabitants of Jericho,
so the world will stand in wonder and amazement at the
manifestation of the
Sons of God!

The manifestation is not of them; it is
of Christ! The written Word proclaims it, and every
type and shadow declares it! The ancient prophet saw it
by inspiration, as
through a telescope, and spoke in clear and plain
language of the triumph of
the Lord, and the glory of the manifestation of the Sons
of God. John, the
Revelator, saw it as he was in the Spirit on the Lord's
Day, on the lonely Isle
of Patmos. The revelation,
which burns within the
spirit of man, infinitely surpasses any glory or
manifestation borne without,
for it is from within that the light shines! God Himself
is His own
interpreter, and He is making it plain!

The promises, concerning Jesus, include not only what He
would do,
but also what He would be. The miracle of His grace is not
merely what He would do for us, but
what HE WOULD BECOME IN US. It would
have been wonderful, indeed, had He come to show us a
plan whereby we could find Salvation, but it is unspeakably
precious when we realize HE DIED TO BECOME THAT
SALVATION! Could a man receive
Salvation and refuse the Saviour? Is there such a thing
as Christianity,
without Christ? Could one ever be spiritual, without the
Spirit? That is why
our ecclesiastical rituals avail us nothing; though man
has made them substitutes
for His lovely, indwelling presence, and has tried to
find sanctuary for his
wounded spirit within the ceremony. He has ofttimes
thereby closed the door
against the entrance of the King of Glory!

One truth, which stands out in bold relief in the
ministry
and life of our Lord, is the privilege of progression
and growth in grace and
in the knowledge of the things of God! The Apostle Paul,
in whose spirit the
Living Christ was dwelling, proclaimed the same glorious
truth, and admonished
us to go on to
maturity. That
maturity is not the development of human understanding;
neither is it an
increase in our intellectual knowledge concerning
prophecy. It is, however, the
unhindered outflow
of the knowledge of
Christ Himself, giving us understanding of the
heart commensurate with our
spiritual ability to receive Him.

The growth of the Christian life is, in reality, the
increasing manifestation of HIS LIFE. As in the natural
world the identity of
the bride becomes lost in the bridegroom, so it is with
the Bride of Christ!
She literally becomes a partaker of the Divine Nature.
"He that believeth
in (into) Me, out of his
innermost being shall flow
rivers of Living Water." The surge of this Divine Flow
of Resurrection
Life will cover body, soul and spirit; and the Divine
virtues of our adorable
Lord will nullify and abrogate absolutely everything we
have received under the
Curse of the Law. This provision includes HEALING. It
means more
than HEALING,
it is the perpetuation
of HEALTH! It
means the continuous operation in us of the DIVINE LIFE.

CHRIST IS ALL

Oh, that the sheep of His pasture, so cruelly beaten
about
by the forces of circumstance and environment, could
once again hear the voice
of the Good Shepherd, saying, "Come unto Me!" What an
innumerable
host of cults surround us, and with what insistence do
they proclaim their
dogmatisms and their private interpretations! Divine
healers advertise their
wares; and this method and that method are sold, until
the atoning sacrifice of
our Lord is well-nigh measured out in classes and
treatments-- as if men could
sell the sunlight by the bottle-full! Is not one fairly
bewildered with the
multitude of contentious voices which sound on every
hand and side, in
proclamation of this or of that virtue!

In the days of old, what demands the Pharisees and
Sadducees
placed upon the people before they would be accepted by
the powers that be!
They were required to give tithes where it could be
proved that they had given.
They must pray in public. They must do this and they
must not do that. With
legalisms they bound them and with chains of ritualism
they enslaved them. But
when Jesus came, He swept aside their traditional
belief. He upset the
"apple-cart" of their preconceived and pre-established
prejudices. He
showed His disdain for their Sabbath laws and healed
men, because they needed
His touch, whether it be on
this day or on that. His
tender appeal was directed to the hearts and spirits of
the Suffering, the
Sinful, and the Oppressed!

"Come unto Me!" He said. That was all. They were
to lay their heads upon His breast. There was no need to
go through this gate
or that door, for there was only one Door, after Jesus
came. There was only one
Way. There was only one Life. There was only One
Salvation, and that was in the
Saviour! Directly they came to Him, there flowed from
Him-- into them-- from
His illimitable fountains of virtue. Life, Health,
Strength, Joy and Peace! He
was their Everything! They
needed nothing beside Him.
Whether one be a
self-righteous Nicodemus or a poor,
broken Mary of Magdala, He was the illimitable Source of
Eternal Supply, and in
Him they found all their need!

How intellectual we have tried to be! With what
dignified
phrases and meaningless platitudes have we shrouded the
Person of our Blessed
Lord! Then with what seeming cleverness and ingenuity
have we digged our own
wells, only to find that the waters were
"Marah" (bitterness) and never did satisfy. We have builded us broken cisterns and,
lo, their waters failed!

In the "far country" no prodigal can ever
comprehend the sweetness of the rest and peace we enjoy
in the Father's House.
To let a man stay in the pigsty, though we give him an
encyclopedia and
textbooks on "How to be Happy, Well, Good, etc.," will
never lift him
out of the stench of his surroundings, nor bring to his
innermost being the
peace which he, in his heart, craves! Neither will it do
him any good to sit in
submission, listening to lectures on the beauty of the
world outside,
intermingled with a little, vehement scolding because he
has gotten himself
into the predicament which is his.

No, there is only one thing! He, as well as you and I,
must
determine within the heart and declare, "I will arise
and go to my
Father!" Then like the woman who, having an issue of
blood, pressed
through the throng to the side of her Lord, we must push
aside people with
their jargon of contending voices, as we crowd our way
through this group and
that, until we stand face to face with Eternal Peace The
Lord Jesus Christ
Himself! The sunlight from His lovely face warms the
heart, and the doors of
our Spirit swing open to let "The Light Of The
World" stream in!

AS MANY AS RECEIVED

He says, "Give Me your poor, broken, wasted life, and
in return I will give you Mine.
Give Me your weakness--
battered and bruised by man's inhumanity to man and the
cruelty of sinful
circumstance-- give it to Me,
and I will give you My
Courage, My Strength, and My Power! I died that you
might live; and now as you
die to all that is self, I live in you! I surrendered to
the Will of God, for
you; and now you may surrender-- absolutely and
completely-- to the Will of the
Father through Me!"

We left God in disobedience (in Adam all die) and we
return
in obedience (in Christ shall all be made alive). We
come back into the direct
care and keeping of the Creator-- our Maker! In God's
glorious and eternal
Ultimate-- in the Land of Endless Day-- there will be no
need of the sun, neither
of the moon, for the Lamb
Himself is the Light
thereof! The Light that illumines heaven is the Light
which illumines the
Spirit. We should be seeking-- not the "lime-light"--
but the
"Lamb-Light!"

In the final analysis, we can throw out-- or otherwise
push
aside-- most of the things we have been taught to do--
do-- do! Why strive we to
light our little candles when the sun is
brightly shining? Why try we
to push the ocean back,
when our Heavenly Father has ordained that the force of
gravity and the pull of
the moon shall do that with consummate ease? It is the
acknowledged Will of God
that His sheep not wander about in blind superstition,
seeking first this and
then that as a source of healing. It is His desire that
each of His little ones
come into direct contact, and live
in union with the
Christ; that all may come to the Father.

Yet-- how pitiful appears the account! He came unto His
own
and His own received Him not. He is the Light that shineth
in darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth
it not.
He was the fulfillment of every prophetic utterance, and
yet the students of
the prophecies did not recognize Him. He called to
people in need, but they
turned deaf ears to Him and followed after superstitions
and fables. He offered
Himself, a Ransom for many; but He was despised and
rejected of men-- a Man of
Sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Is it any wonder that He stood beneath the outstretched
trees of Bethphage and
cried, "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them
which are sent unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold,
your house is left unto
you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye
shall not see Me
henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh
in the name of the
Lord." (Matt. 23:37-39).

In their blind ignorance and superstition they knew not
what
He said, let alone what He meant. He spoke of the Bread
which He was, and all
they could think about was the manna which fell from
heaven on the burning
sands of the wilderness centuries ago. He spoke of
Rivers of Living Water-- the
Water which He Himself was-- but they could visualize
nothing beyond the
pouring of some water from a pool upon a pile of stones
they called an altar.
How like man-- even today he would do anything but
simply RECEIVE HIM!

THE WELL OF GLORY

Receiving Him
means giving up to Him the right to the right of one's
self! The heart which
opens to the REIGN OF THE CHRIST enters into the reality
of His Presence. It
is, as it were, that in the heart the lion and the lamb
lie down together. We
walk with Him in Heavenly places. He speaks, and the
sound of His voice is so
sweet, that the birds hush their singing!

The living, pulsating reality of His Divine Indwelling
springs up within our innermost being like an artesian
well of heavenly glory!
It is effortless; it just FLOWS. It permeates every fibre
of the nature; and we do not have to wait until the
Gates of Pearl unfold
before we are lost in wonder, in love, and in praise!

As the human spirit runs up the flag of unconditional
surrender, the flesh capitulates, and the Lord of Life
is Sovereign. Christ is
all, and in all; and throughout our being all that
Christ was,
He now becomes in
us! We drink of His Life, His Healing, His Saving Grace,
and His Strength. His
perfect Love has cast out all fear, and we learn to know HIM as
the Only Wise God, the true mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus!

It is in Him we find our completeness; and we turn from
agonizing, imploring petitioning to the realization that
in finding Him is not
only Life and Peace, but that it also brings the
continuous assurance that he,
in whom dwelleth this Christ of God, knows His felicity,
bliss, and heavenly
joy, as out of his innermost being he is privileged to
enjoy the flow of those
Rivers of Living Water which proceed out of the Throne
of God, and whose
ultimate destiny is that flowing back into God.

If, perchance, the trials of the road become heavy; we
learn
to find our sufficiency-- not in human attainment-- but
in that Faith, THE
FAITH OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, which worketh by love;
and which will surmount
every difficulty, be it physical, material, or
spiritual. This sufficiency
can be found only in the
outworking of the Indwelling Christ, for it is in Him and through Him
that all our needs are met.